Beauty and the Beast
by Poison Fairy
Summary: A young man is turned into a beast for being too selfish. A young woman longs for an exciting life outside of her own. Will there destinies meet? A Naruto version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
1. Everyday It's All the Same

_Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a young Prince who lived in a grand castle. Although he had everything his heart desired the prince was selfish, spoiled, and unkind. But then, an old homeless woman came to his castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the weather. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the Prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is meant to be found on the inside. When he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. _

_The Prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom for many years. If he could learn to love another and earn their love in return before the last petal fell, the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a Beast for all time._

The black-haired young woman sighed, she picked up her books and went out of her clan's gate to town. It was a sunny day just like all the others. Everyone was happy. "Little town, it's a quiet village. Every day...like the one before. Little town, full of little people...coming out to say..." she sang, her eyes were gazing out to somewhere else.

"Konichiwa!" a man with a dog next to him sang.

"Konichiwa!" A man with sunglasses on greeted.

"Konichiwa!" a young woman with a blonde pony-tail sang

"Konichiwa!" sang a girl with short pink hair.

"Konichiwa!" an old man with long white hair following a young lady said in a creepy manner.

"There goes Ino with her flowers like always. The same old ferns, and daisies to sell!" the young girl proclaimed, "Every morning just the same. Since the morning that we came, to this large and obnoxious town."

"Ohayou Hinata!" greeted Teuchi ( the 'old man' that owns Ichiraku Ramen).

"Ohayougozaimasu sir!" Hinata replied.

"Where are you off to this morning?"

"The bookshop! I just finished the most awesome story, about a ninja who is bent on revenge for his deceased family..." the twenty year old girl started.

"That's nice...Ayame, the noodles, hurry up!"

"Look there she goes, that girl's weird no question. Dazed and distracted can't you tell?" sang the people that had greeted 'konichiwa' to her earlier.

"Never part of any crowd!" said a lady with black hair in a dress of strips of white cloth.

"Cause her head's up in the clouds." said a man with a black short pont-tail high on his head.

"No denying she's a strange girl, that Hyuuga." the Konichiwa people commented and sang. Hinata jumped on the back of a passing caravan full of weapons for the nearby villages and rode through the town.

"Yo!" said the driver with slanted yet tall silver hait with a mask over his mouth and nose.

"Konichiwa!" a lady with blonde low-hanging pig-tails and a big chest said.

"How is you family?" he asked. She wacked him on the head yelling, 'DEAD!'

"Hey you!" A woman with short black hair and an orange skirt yelled.

"What? Good day!" a man with long black hair and a pale face and snake-like eyes whimpered.

"Where's your container?" A boy with raven black hair with a fan on his shirt ran away.

"I need, six eggs!" Amane cried out!

"That's too expensive!" Teuchi whined.

"There must be more than this provincial life!" Hinata sang, she entered the book shop.

"Irashaimase Hinata!" A man with sunglasses like the other guy but older happily greeted her.

"Ohayo! I've come to return the book I borrowed!" Aburame Shibi took the book from her and put it on the shelf.

"Finished already?"

"Oh," Hinata said in a joyous voice, "I couldn't put it down, do you have anything new?" The librarian chuckled. "Not since yesterday." The girl smiled and shrugged.

"That's okay. I'll borrow...this one!" she took a thick book down from a hish shelf.

"_That_ one? But, you've already read it twice!" the man said, surprised. Hinata spinned around dreamily and said,

"Far off places, daring jutsu, Kekkai Genkai, and a prince in disguise!" He bowed to her.

"Well if you like it all that much, it's yours!"

"B-but Mr. Aburame!"

"I insist!" He smiled under his white long coat.

"Well thank you! Thank you so much!" she hugged the book to her torso and skipped out the sliding door.

The males from before were watching her from outside on the street sighed and scratched their heads singing, "Look there she goes, that girl's so peculiar. I wonder if she's feeling well!"

"With a dreamy far-off look!" said the females.

"And her nose stuck in a book! What a puzzle to the rest of us, that Hinata!" they all sang. Hinata sat down on the edge of the nearby fountain surrounded by a white dog from the man before, a pig with a necklace on, and seven other dogs in blue capes and odd accesories. Light from the sun reflected off the water and danced over the group.

"Oh...isn't this amazing! It's my favorite part because, you'll see! Here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him till chapter three!"

"Now it's no wonder her name means 'sunny place'. Her looks have got no parallel!" said the woman with 'gamble' on the back of her jacket.

"Bu behind that fair facade I'm afraid she's very odd...very different from the rest of us-," sang the snake-eyed man. The woman knocked him on the head muttering 'Like you're one to talk.'

"She's nothing like the rest of us, yes different than the rest of us is Hinata." everyone sang. A bunch of geese flew overhead of them. A black object is projected through the air and hits one of them. A boy in his late teens with a long green scarf on ran excited with a bag in his hand, probably trying to catch it. He failed but picked it up from the ground and returned to his role-model.

"Sugoi! You didn't miss a shot Naruto!" the boy plucked the kunai out of the goose and handed it over the the man in an orange sweat-suit, "You're the greatest ninja ever, even if you don't have a kekkai Genkai-!" The boy was knocked to the ground when Naruto began flexing his muscles.

"I know, Konohamaru!"

"Huh, no beast stands alive against you...and no girl for that matter!" he said, getting up from the ground.

"It's true, and I have my sights set on...that one!" Naruto pointed to Hinata whom was still reading by the fountain. Konohamaru's jaw dropped.

"Y-you mean Hyuufa Hiashi's first daughter? The heir to the clan?" Konohamaru knew Naurto didn't stand a chance against her, a Hyuuga clan heir.

She's the one! Thant's the lucky girl I'm going to marry!"

"But she's-"

"The most beautiful girl in town!"

"I know-" a vein popped on his forehead.

" And that makes her the best. And don't I deserve the best?" Naruto declared, ignoring his follower.

"Well of course, I mean you do, but I mean..."

"Right from the moment I met her, saw her," the man declared, tears running down his face as he looked past the sunset a boy in a green jumpsuit had brought for him, "I said she was gorgeous and I fell!" Konohamaru sweat-dropped. "Here in town there's only she, who's as beautiful as me. So I'm planning to make plans and marry Hinata-chan." A bunch of ladies'( pretty much all of the ones from before) eyes were becoming all glittery and shiny as they looked at him.

"Look there he goes, isn't he dreamy? Uzumaki Naruto, oh he's so cute!" they sighed, "Be still my heart, I'm hardly breathing. He's such a tall, blonde, strong, and handsome brute!" Hinata easily weaved her way through the crowd of people in the town. Naruto struggled to get to her.

"Ohayougozaimasu!" the boy with the dog said to him.

"Excuse me, Kiba!" Naruto pushed him out of the way.

"Hajimemashite!" a round man with red swirls on his cheeks said.

"Why yes!" the guy with a high short-and-spiky ponytail greeted.

"You call this bacon?" said the girl with long blonde hair in a pony-tail.

"What tasty ramen!" commented the pink-haired girl.

"Some dough!" Teuchi ordered.

"_TEN_ YARDS?" Amane screamed.

"It's a wedding!" Teuchi told her. Naruto narrowly swerved around them.

"Pardon!" Naruto yelled.

"I'll get the shiitake."

"Please let me through!" the ninja whined.

"This naruto!" Amane cried, looking at the swirly styled toppings on the plate.

"This squid!"

"It's stale!"

"It's old!"

"You got the wrong order!" the silver haired man with the mask explained. Amane fainted with relief. Hinata sighed.

"There must be more tha this provincial life!"

"Well maybe so..." they all muttered.

Naruto pushed his way free proclaiming, "Just watch, I'm going to make Hinata-chan my wife!" The villagers srrounded him.

"Look there she goes, a girl that's strange but special. A most peculiar kunoichi. It's a pity and a sin. She doesn't quite fit in!" they all sang.

"But she really is a funny girl." the woman sang.

"A beauty but a funny girl." said the men.

She really is a funny girl...that Hinata!" they all said. Naruto had finallycaught up with Hinata.

"Ohayo Hinata-chan!" he said, sitting next to her on the bench.

"Ohayougozamasu Naruto." she said to him. Naruto snatched the book from her. "Naruto, may I have my book black, please?" He flipped through the pages, the book was upside down.

"_How can you read this_? There's no pictures!" he scrutinized.

"Well _some_ people use their imaginations." she sneered.

"Hinata-chan, it's about time you got your head out of those books," Naruto said, throwing the book into a mud puddle, "and pay attention to more important thing...like _me_!" The ladies from town gazed at the scene. Hinata sighed, she picked up the book and cleaned off the mud. "It's not right for a woman to read...soon she starts getting ideas...and thinking." he doged a ball of mud that was thrown at him.

"Naruto, you are positively primeval." she told him. he put his arm ovr her shoulders as she sat down again.

"Why thank you, Hinata-chan. hey, what do you say you and me take a walk over to the tavern and have a look at my mission awards and hunting trophies." he slyly said.

"Maybe some other time." she shrugged off his arm and stood up.

"What wrong with her?" Sakura cried from their hiding place.

"She's crazy!" Tenten whined.

"He's gorgeous!" sighed Ino. The Hyuuga took a step back from him.

"Please, Naruto. I can't. I have to get home and help my father." she explained to him. Konoha jumped out of a bush and laughed.

"Ha ha ha, that old geezer. He needs all the help he can get!" he said. He and Naruto heartily laughed.

"Don't you talk about my father that way, or I'll talk about your mama!" she yelled.

"Yeah, don't talk about her old man that way!" Naruto said, he conked him on the head.

"My father's not crazy, he's a genius!" An explosion sounded from behind them. Naruto and Konohamaru began laughing again. Hinata sprinted back to her house. She ran to the raised floor, slipped off her sandals, and ran to the greenhouse.

"Neji-sama? Father?" Hinata nervously said. Her cousin emerged from the smoke supporting his uncle on his shoulders.

"How did this happen? Damn it!" Neji muttered. He set Hiashi down on the couch.

"Are you allright father, Neji-sama?" she asked them. Her cousin nodded.

"Yes, I'm fine. But I'm about to give up for tomorrow's competition!"

"You always say that." she chided him.

"I mean it, this time. I'll never get this ninjutsu down!" Hiashi said, looking at the burnt greenhouse.

"Yes you will," Hinata sat next to him, "and you'll win it too."

"Hmph!"

"...and become a world famous Sannin!" she said. He smiled, his white eyes upon her.

"You really believe that?"

"I always have."

"Well what are we waiting for? Neji-san, help me clean this room." The two men got up and began to sweep up the mess. "Did you have a nice time in town today?"

"I got a new book. Father, do you think I'm odd?" Neji was under a desk trying to reach something when he hit his head.

"My first daughter, odd?" he looked up at her, "Where would you get an idea like that?" She sighed.

"Oh, I don't know. It's just I'm not sure if I fit in here. There's no one I can really talk to."

"What about Naruto? He's a handsome fellow!" Hinata sweat dropped.

"He's handsome all right, and rude and concieted, and idiotic, and uneducated and... oh. father, he's not for me!"

"Well don't you worry, after I become a Sannin we can move to the Rice Village if you like! Neji, lets try it again!" Hiashi declared.

"Hinata-sama, please go to a safer area." Neji whispered to her. She nodded and went to the far off doorway. Hiashi did a lot of handseals really fast: swords grew out of his hands and were enveloped in flames.

"You did it!" Neji yelled.

"I did, I did! Neji, go fetch the horses, I'm off to the Sound village!" A peice of rubbish fell from the ceiling and wacked him on the back of the head making him become unconscious.

_A few hours later_----------

"Sayanora father! Good luck!" Hinata waved to him as he trotted off on his horse.

"Good bye, Hinata-chan, take care while I'm gone!

_Several hours later_

Hiashi was in a dark forest on a small and narrow dirt path. "We should be there bye now. Maybe we missed a turn. I guess I should have taken a...wait a minute." He pulled Yami his horse to a stop and lifted his lantern to illuminate a sign giving directions to the Rice village and the Sand village. "Let's go this way!" The two continued through the darkness, he looked right at a dark and weedy path then right at a cleaner and mre inviting path. They headed left. "This can't be right, Yami let's turn back-LOOK OUT!" he yelled, a swarm of poisonous bats flew over them. Yami ran through the forest with his master glued with shock to his back, they almost ran over the edge of a cliff. "Yami? Oh, no!" A pack of wolves had surrounded them. Yami bucked the old man off and fled from them. Hiashi took a step back and fell down the cliff which actually turned out to be a steep hill. He landed at the locked gates of a castle. He shakes the gate trying to get it opened.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" The gate opened, Hiashi ran with his sprained foot to the castle door. He banged on it. The doors creaked apart for him and he cautiously entered.


	2. Bad Luck

The castle was clean, yet dark and gloomy. Not a breath of life was in that area regardless of the dim glow of a candlestick with two arms and the ticking of a clock. "Hello? Hello?" Hiashi said. He shivered.

"Poor guy must've gotten lost in the woods." said a male voice by the candle and clock.

"Shut up! Maybe he'll go away." said another with a low voice. Hiashi turned around to face their way.

"Is someone there?" he asked.

"Not a word, Kankurou. Not one word!" said the low voice.

"I don't mean to intrude or anything but I have lost my horse, I'm injured and old, and I need a place to stay for the night." The candle began to move, it opened it very glittery and teary black eyes and looked at the stout clock.

"Oh, Baki. C'mon, have a heart." Kankurou pleaded.

"Shhh! Shut up." The candle took action and put his hand/handle over the candle's mouth, who put his lit candle hand over Baki's. "Ahh, ow ow OW!" He quickly withdrew his hand and waved it around.

"Of course, old-man, you are welcome here." Kankurou said. Hyuuga Hiashi whipped around in confusion.

"Who said that?" He picked up the candle stick for light, no knowing that he was holding the speaker (well who in their right mind would?). Kankurou tapped him on the shoulder with the gold part of his hand.

"Over here." he spun around, pulling him to the other side.

"Where?" he nervously asked. Kankurou tapped him on the head.

"Konbonwa!"

"Ah!" Hiashi dropped Kankurou onto the stone tiled floor. The clock jumped down from the table and waddled like a penguin over to them.

"Well, now you've done it, Kankurou. This is_ great,_ just splendid peachy -aargh!" Hiashi had picked up Baki and was looking at him from different angles.

"What kind of genjutsu or summoning _are_ you?"

"Put me down at once!" He began to tickle the bottom of Baki's feet, the clocked laughed. Then Hiashi winded the spring on the back of Baki's head: the clock hands on his face began to whirl around. The human opened Baki's front and played with pendulum. The aggravated enchanted clock smacked away the old man's hand and shut the door. "Do you _mind_? Please refrain from doing that, _ever_!"

"My apologies, it's just that I've never seen an inanimate object be used as a summoning and that...ahh...I mean...ah..._ah-choo_!" Hiashi started before had sneezed on Baki, indicating that he had caught a cold from being tin the rain and having cold feet. The clock's clock hands winded around like windshield wipers to clean himself.

"Oh, you are soaked to the bone, old-man, Follow me so you may warm yourself by the fire."

"Thank you so much." Kankurou hopped down the wide hallway then to the right to the den, followed by Hiashi.

"No, no, no, do you know what the master would do if he finds you here?" Baki nervously yelled at them. A large shadowy figure watched the scene below him from an overhead balcony. Baki ran as fast as he could to the two as they entered the den. "I demand you to stop...right...there!" he cried, panting. He tumbled down the steps. Hiashi sat down in the large chair in front of the roaring fireplace. "Oh, No! Not the master's chair!" A pillowy footstool rushed past him, barking like a dog literally, and went up to Hiashi. "I'm not seeing this, I'm not seeing this!" Baki groaned.

"Why, hello there, boy." Hiashi greeted the footstool: it propped himself up under the human's feet. A coat rack came in and removed his wet coat. 'What service!" he said, astonished.

"All right, this has gone far enough. I'm in charge here and-argh!" He was run over by a teacart sounding like a race-car.

"How would you like some green tea? It'll warm you up in no time!" said a white tea pot with a purple lid and highlights along the rims. She poured some tea out of her spout into a tea-cup that was chipped at the edge: it hopped into his hand.

"No! No tea, no tea!" he ordered, still laying face down on the ground. The Hyuuga leader sipped the tea.

"Ermm, his eyes creep me out sister!" said the tea cup. Hiashi coughed from the shock of drink from something that talked.

"Oh, konbonwa!" Hiashi said to Matsuri. The door to the den slammed open and a strong gust of wind blew through out the room: extinguishing Kankurou's flames and the fire in the fireplace. Baki dived under the rug to hide as Temari (the teapot) began to shake in fear. Matsuri jumped back onto the teacart and hid behind her fake sister.

"Uh, oh!" she whimpered. _He_ entered the room. He was a beastly and monstrous looking raccoon-dog with a dark purple cape wrapped around him.

"There's a stranger here." he growled with his raspy voice. Kankurou relit his flames and explained to him,

"Master, allow me to explain. This old-man was lost in the woods and he was cold and wet..." His words were drowned by the very loud growl of the ichibi monster which doused his flames once again. Kankurou bowed his head looking dejected. Baki crawled out from under the rug.

"Master, I'd like to take this moment to say I was against this from the start. I tried to stop them, but would they listen to me? No, no, no." Once again, the monster's growled drowned out his voice. Hiashi nervously looked to the left of the chair, then to the right: he saw him.

"Who are you? What the hell are you doing here?" the raccoon-dog snarled. A very frightened Hiashi slowly stood up and backed away from the advancing beast.

"I-I was lost in the woods and..." he nearly stumbled from his hurt ankle. He stared into the raccoon-dog's yellow and amber eyes. It advanced to him.

"You are not welcome here!"

"I'm s-sorry." Hiashi stuttered like his first daughter Hinata had when she was younger.

"What are_ you_ staring at?" he growled with his haughty voice. The Hyuuga cowered under the him.

"Noth-noth-nothing!" He escaped from the tight spot and ran for the door. Shukaku raced around and blocked the entrance with great speed.

"So, you've come to stare at the Shukaku. Have you?" he barked.

"Please! I meant no harm! I just needed a place to stay for the night!" Hiashi begged.

"Oh, I'll give you a place to stay!" the native animal of Japan and other Eastern Asian countries cackled. He picked up Hiashi with great ease, carried him out the room, and slammed the door: plunging the den, along with Kankurou, Temari, Matsuri, and Baki into darkness


	3. Marriage

Outside of the Hyuuga compund where Hinata was reading was Naruto and his minion Konohamaru. "Heh. Sugoi! Hinata-chan's gonna get the surprise of her life, huh Naruto?" the third Hokage's grandson exclaimed. The yellow-but-not blonde haired man patted Konohamaru roughly on his back and said through his smiling teeth,

"Heh, heh, don't call her Hinata-_chan_,_" _his mood change as he took up the dramatic 'nice guy' pose of Rock Lee, "Yep. This is her lucky day!" Naruto let go of the branch he was holding which swung back and hit Konohamaru in the mouth: knocking out some teeth. The man turned around to gaxe at the band, wedding guests, and a bunch of other people whom were just out of sight of the Hyuuga compound. "I thank you all for coming to my wedding. but first, I had better go propose to the girl!"

Jiraiya (the preist guy who says all of the boring stuff during the wedding), Teuchi and Amane the food providers, and everyone else laughed heartily. To the side stood Ino, Sakura, and Tenten who were sobbing and wearing black.

"Now, you Konohamaru-kun. When Hinata and I come out of that gate-." Naruto said.

Konohamaru nodded and finished, "Oh, I know! I know!" he turned around and directed the band made up of Ebisu Kage Bunshin. They began playing 'Here Comes the Bride.' Naruto put an exploding note by Konohamaru which blew up a second afterward.

"NOT YET BAKKA!" Naruto yelled. From up in a sakura tree Konohamaru apologized.

Hinata, Neji, and Hanabi Hyuuga were enjoying a peaceful not to mention quiet afternoon. Hinata was reading her new book, Neji was meditating/focusing his chakra, and Hanabi was reading a 'Kunoichi Today' magazine that had Utada Hikaru on the cover of it for some obndd reason. There was a a loud knocking on the door. Being the closest to the door Hinata put down her book went to go answer it. She peeked through the peep-hole and saw the magnified face of Naruto. She smacked her forehead and slides open the door.

"Naruto, what a...pleasant surprise." she said. Hanabi and Neji sweat-dropped.

"Isn't it though? I'm full of surprises. You know, Hinata-chan, there's not a girl in Konohagakure who wouldn't love to be in your shoes." He boisterously said.

Hinata thought _'But I'm barefoot!' _Naruto did the 'Nice Guy' pose, "This is the day..." he began, he quickly retrieved the compact in his pocket and looked t the mirror and licked his teeth clean. "This is the day your dreams come true."

"What do _you_ know about my dreams, Naruto?" Hinata hissed.

"Plenty! Here, picture this." Naruto discarded his sandals by the door and entered the clean and sakura blossom-smelling room. He plopped down on the white sofa and propped his smelly feet on Hinata's book on the table across from him. Hanabi activated her Byakugan and concentrated chakra into her palm.

"A large taditional home, Teuchi's latest and freshest ramen sitting on the polished oak table, and my little wife: massaging my feet while the little ones play ninja in the gardens." Naruto explained, his eyes were closed and he was blushing. Hanabi leaped at Naruto from behind with her fist full of electrical chakra that sounded like a bunch of birds chirping but she was interfered by Neji who guided her hand over to the wall: a large hole appeared in the wall next to the door. Hinata looked absolutely disgusted.

Naruto got up close to her face. He was in a purple robe with a lighter shade of purple draped around him and he held a golden staff with a circle at the top with spiky things hanging from it. "Will you bear my children? We'll have six or seven." Hinata blushed and backed away from him.

"D-dogs?" she said, knew the real answer.

"No, Hinata-chan! Intellegent and strapping boys, like me!" Neji and Hanabi sweat dropped as well as haev a vein pop out on their foreheads..

"Imagine that." she thought aloud. She picked up her book, put a feather on the page she was on, and put it back in the shelf.

"And do you know who that wife will be?" he asked, his blue eyes became small and squinty.

"Let me think..." she said, the thought '_of a way to escape'_.

"You!" He sprang from the sofa and cornered her. She ducked under his arms.

"Naruto, I'm speechless. I really don't know what to say." she said to him she backed away to the door. Naruto walked over to her like Danny Zuko from Grease until he tripped over something which made him narrowly miss a kunai that was 'accidentally' thrown at his head that came from hanabi's direction. he picked himself up and continued to walk that funny way until he slipped on the tiled area of the kitchen where he escaped the wrath of a bunch of throwing needles that said 'Hyuuga Neji' on them if you looked really close at them. He finally got to the door and cornered Hinata.

"Say you'll marry me." he convincingly said. Hinata reached for the slot to open the door.

"I'm very sorry, Naruto, but I just don't deserve you." she quickly slid the door open and dashed under Naruto's arms as he tumbled out the doorway and into the hole Hanabi had made made from her Chidori attack. 'Here Comes the Bride' played. Konohamaru, who was directing the wedding band of Ebisus, looked down from the hill they were on and saw Naruto's legs sticking out of a hole with a seven dogs surrounding him with bones in their mouths. he cut off the band and dashed down their until his foot got caught in his scarf causing him to tumble down the rest of the hill where he landed at his set destination. Naruto scrambled out of the hole and shooed the dogs away.

"So...how'd it go?" Konohamaru asked. The man in orange slowly turned around, clouds gathered behind him as lightining struck. Fire burned in his glaring eyes, he picked up the boy by the scruff of his scarf and held him to eye-level.

"Believe it! I'll have Hinata for my wife, make no mistake about that!" He dropped Konohamaru in the hole and walked away looking rejected with tears streaming down his face. From inside the large house was Hinata, Neji, and Hanabi.

"Is he gone yet?" came Hinata's muffled voice from under a blanket.

"Clear!" her teenage sister said. Hinata gave a sigh of relief and folded the blanket and put it away.

"Can you believe it? he asked me to marry him! Me, the wife of that idiotic, brainless...," Hinata got up and left the room to outside. Neji and Hanabi looked at each other and shrugged. Hinata walked over to Moegi and Udon's endangered species zoo where they made Konoha Mew Mews.

"Mrs. Uzumaki, can't you just see it?" she sang to a group Amami rabbits, "Mrs. Uzumaki, his little wife. Not me, no sir, I guarantee it. I want much more than this provincial life..." Hinata ran off to the vast field of flowers that overlooked a beautiful valley beyond it.

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell." she sang, her heart ache rang within her voice as she spun around. She stopped and looked to the sky, "And for once it might be grand, to have someone understand. I want so much more than they've got planned." The clopping of a horse sounded behind her, she turnred around hopefully but was disturbed to see Yami without her father aboard him. "Y-Yami! What are you doing here? Where is father? Where is he, Yami? What happened?" she panicked. The brown horse snorted and lowered its head to eat some grass. "Oh, we _have_ to find him, you have to take me to him, Yami!" Hinata jumped onto the horse's back and in a matter of seconds they were gone into the setting sun's horizon.


	4. Surprises and a Promise

A few seconds later...

"Oh, Yami! Giddy-up! Come on move it! Father could be in grave danger!" Hinata cried to the brown horse who was eating some fruit from the Ryukyu Flying Foxes (which are actually bats). She heard a male voice behind the Nekko Barn. Hinata raised an eyebrow and quietly slipped off the lunching horse. She tip-toed over to the side of the barn and peeked her head around the corner, her jaw dropped in surprise. Hatake Kakashi was sitting on the stump of a cut down tree petting an Iriomote cat.

"Someday when I become old and if you're still alive I'll adopt you and we can spend our last years together. Isn't that right... Rin?" the silver-haired Jounin said in a sweet voice to the thick brown and black haired cat. One could almost mistake it for a house-pet. The cat purred and rubbed its side against him.

"_K-Kakashi-sama_?" Hinata stuttered. He slowly looked up in shock while unconsciously still petting the endangered cat.

"Hinata-chan! What are you doing here?" he asked, scratching the back of head.

"Well...I need Yami, my horse, to take me to my father who has been gone for quite a while but he won't stop eating so I'm stuck here." She explained to him. The black-haired girl was wearing a light blue sleeveless dress that came down to around her knees. The torso part of the dress was a bit like Sleeping Beauty's top part of her dress. Underneath the blue dress was a long white sleeved dress that had a small raised collar at the neck. She sighed and sat down on a bushel of straw.

"Lord Hiashi is missing?" Kakashi asked.

"Maybe." Hinata sadly replied. The copy ninja took a moment to think then he stood up. She watched him in question. He took a kunai from his pocket, cut his thumb just enough to make it bleed and then preformed several hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he commanded. Hinata shielded her eyes from the smoke. She leaned forward anticipating to see what he had summoned. The smoke cleared away to reveal a gigantic dog with a dark blue cape on and a pug dog sitting on its head with a bandana with a Konoha head protector on it.

"Yo!" the small dog nonchalantly greeted her. Sweat ran down her disturbed face. _'It talked! It's a talking dog!'_ she thought. " The dog sniffed the air and commented that he liked her Sakura smelling shampoo.

"Pakkun!" Kakashi impatiently said to the pug.

"Oh, konichiwa Kakashi! What do you want?" Pakkun asked.

"I need you two to lead Miss Hyuuga to her father Lord Hyuuga Hiashi who seemes to be missing, got it?"

"Affirmative," the dog turned to Hinata and asked, "Do you have anything of his with you?" She nodded and gave him a locket that was in her pocket. He sniffed it and a second afterward he said, "Get on his back." He nodded his head towards the larger dog who couldn't talk. She did so and they ran off.

An hour or so passed by until they breached the opened gated of a gigantic castle. "What is this place?" Hinata thought aloud. The two dogs became nervous.

"Konbonwa, Hinata-san!" said Pakkun, and with that hey dismissed themselves in a poof of smoke. She entered the gateway and saw her father's head protecter on the ground.

"Father..." she whispered. From inside the castle was a clock and candlestick bickering about the past turn of series of unfortunate events.

"Couldn't keep quiet, could we. We just_ had_ to invite him in to stay, didn't we? Serve him tea, sit in the master's chair, pet the pooch..." rambled the vexed Baki. Kankurou looked guiltily at the ground and would have scuffled a foot around if he had any.

"I was just trying to be hospitable." Kankurou said in an apologizing manner. The large entrance doors creaked open by Hinata.

"Hello? Is anyone here? I'm sorry for intruding. Hello, Father, are you here?" Hinata said with a bunch of other things like that. She walked up the grand staircase that split into three paths. One leading up to the right and another symmetrical to it at the left and one straight on in the center.

"Sister!" Matsuri exclaimed from the kitchen, "There's a girl in the castle!"

"Now now, Matsuri. I'm not going to let you make up such wild stories." Temari said as she poured hot water into the tub.

"But really, sister, I saw her!" the girl insinuated. Temari rolled her purple eyes.

"Enough, not another word. Into the tub." she scolded. The teapot pushed the chipped cup into the tub of hot water and soap. A feather-duster swept into the room.

"Hey! There's a lady in the castle!" said the feather-duster with a feminine voice. Matsuri poked her head out of the water.

"See! Even Anko-chan says so!"

Back to Baki and Kankuro: "You irresponsible dobe, bakka, moronic-!" Baki was lecturing the young man of a candle when he heard something else.

"Father?" came Hinata's soft voice. They turned around to look at the new arrival.

"Did you see that?" Kankurou excitedly whispered in disbelief. Running to the door, he and Baki poked their heads around the corner. "It's a girl!"

"Yes, I see that." he replied. Kankurou looked at Baki with his happy purple eyes and explained,

"Don't you see? She's the one. The girl that we've been waiting for! She has come to break the spell!" With that he chased after Hinata.

"Hey! W-wait a minute!" Baki yelled to the candlestick. Hinata walked down a narrow hallway, unaware that a candlestick and clock were trailing her. The house-hold objects went to a door that she had skipped by and pushed it open. Hinata heard the creaking of it and looked back to find the source of it. Noticing the open door she went through it.

"Father? Father?" she called to nothing. Baki hid behind the door as Kankurou rushed off as fast as a candlestick could. "Hello? Is someone here? Please, wait! I'm looking for my father!" she called out. Hinata ascended the stairs not realizing Kankurou was watching her from a stand-still position. "That's strange, I'm sure there was someone...i-i-is anybody here?" A voice other than her own was echoing throught the grey room.

"Hinata-chan?" said Hiashi's voice. Hinata rushed up the remainder of the stairs to see Hyuuga Hiashi in a cell.

"Oh, Father!" she rejoiced.

"How did you find me?" he asked, stroking his hands through her black locks of hair.

"Kakashi-sama's summoning dogs! Oh, your hands are like ice. We have to get you out of here!" she said.

"Hinata, I want you to leave this place." Hiashi told her.

"Who's done this to you?" the heir demanded.

"No time to explain! You must go...now!" he yelped.

"I won't leave you!" she cried. All of a sudden a sand colored paw gripped her shoulder and whipped her around. Hinata dropped the torch she was carrying into a puddle: the room went dark.

"What are you doing here?" the raspy voice barked. Hiashi looked from his daughter to Shukaku.

"Hinata-chan, run!" he yelled to her.

"Who's there? Who are you?" the girl inquired.

"The master of this castle." it replied.

"I've come for my father. Please let him out! Can't you see he's sick?" she told it in a determined voice. Fear lurked in her heart.

"Then he shouldn't have trespassed her." he growled.

"But her could die!" Hinata begged, "I'll do anything!"

"There's nothing you can do. He's my prisoner." snarled the raccoon-dog.

"Oh, there must be some way I can...wait! Take me instead!" she cried.

_'As if I haven't heard that line before' _he thought. "You! You would take his place?" Hiashi's white eyes bugged out.

"Hinata-chan, no! You don't know what you're doing!" Hiashi yelled. Hinata ignored him.

"If I did, would you let him go?" she asked.

"Yes, but you must promise me to stay here forever." Shukaku said in a somewhat nicer voice. Hinata pondered the tight situation and then realizes that she couldn't see the captor.

"Come into the light." she said in a steady voice. He hesitated before dragging his legs, then his whole entire body into the moonlight from a window. Hinata's white eyes grew smaller (well you know how anime eyes look when the character is scared) until she couldn't stand it anymore. She fell back to her father.

"No, Hinata-chan," Hiashi comforted, "I won't let you do this!" She ignored him like she and Shukaku had from the start of when Shukaku came into the chapter. The girl in blue and white stood up and regained her posture, she stepped into the light and gave him a determined look.

"You have my word. I promise." she stated.

"Done!" Shukaku quickly said.


	5. Angry Beings

Shukaku, in one stride, quickly got to the prison door to unlock it. Hinata's eyes were unseen from the shadows of her bangs. She collapsed to the ground with her head in her hands. The sound of an unlocking door sounded behind her. Hiashi rushed over to his first daughter.

He crouched down to comfort her saying, "No, Hinata-chan. Listen to me. I'm old: I've lived my life-." The beast grabbed Hiashi by his white haori and dragged him down the stairs.

"Wait!" Hinata cried out to them.

"Hinata-chan!" called out Hiashi. They were already outside. Shukaku proceeded in dragging the Hyuuga clan leader towards the palanquin. "No! Please, spare my daughter!"

"She is no longer any of your concern." the raccoon-dog gruffly said to the human. He threw the man into the palanquin. "Take him to the village." Shukaku ordered. The palanquin broke the ivy holding it t o the ground and then slunk off like a spider with Hiashi inside.

"Please, let me out! Please!" Hiashi's fading voice yelled. His chakra was still being held back so long as he remained in the palanquin or on the castle grounds. Hinata gazed sadly out the cell window at the palanquin and her father crossing the stone bridge over the moat leading to the surrounding forest. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she buried her face in her hands. Shukaku began ascending the few stairs leading to the interior of the castle. Kankurou stood at the entrance with an uneasy expression upon his face.

"Master?" the candle stick nervously said. the beast turned to him, his eyes angry and wild.

"What?" Shukaku hissed.

"Well, um...since the girl is going to be with us for some time, I was thinking that you might, er, want to offer her a more comfortable room." Kankurou said. The ichibi growled at him, enraged. "Then again, maybe not!" the object said with wax droplets rolling down his waxy face. Shukaku stormed off to the cell where Hinata was still crying.

"You didn't even let me say good bye. I'll never see him ever again. I didn't get to say good bye." she thought aloud with her back turned to him. Guilt struck through his heart.

"I'll show you to your room." he dead-panned. Hinata turned her surprised face to him.

"My room?" she thought the cell would be her room, "But I though-."

"You want to, you want to stay in the tower?" asked a confused Shukaku.

"No." she replied.

"Then follow me." he said to her. All of the anger from before had boiled down to nothing but a safe simmer that had always been there. Hinata was lead by the demon through the gloomy hallways of the castle, she had begun to lag behind. The white-eyed girl looked to the hideous sculptures on the walls and the light casting dancing shadows on them. Frightened, she gasped and ran to catch up with Shukaku who was carrying Kankurou to light the halls. The raccoon-dog demon looked back at Hinata to see a tear form at the corner of her eye.

"Say something to her!" Kankurou whispered to him.

"Hmm? Oh..." Shukaku turned his head to the side while still walking through the corridor. " I...er...hope you like it here." he said to Hinata. He looked to the purple-eyed candle's consent. Kankurou motioned his hands for Shukaku to continue. He looked to the Hyuuga heir again and said, "This castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you wish...except for the West Wing." Hinata looked up from her sandals to his sandy yellow-green eyes.

"W-what's in the West Wing?" she questioned. Shukaku halted in his steps and without turning her direction he snarled,

"It's forbidden!" He continued his way down the hall practically squeezing the life out of poor Kankurou where behind them followed a reluctant Hinata. Light spilled into the room as Shukaku opened the door for her. She walked into the comfy room.

"Now, if there's anything you need, my servants will attend to you." he tenderly said. Kankurou's face lit up as an idea awoke in his head.

"Dinner...invite her to dinner!" he whispered in Shukaku's pointy purplish ears. He growled angrily and said to the girl,

"You...will join me for dinner. That's not a request!" The beast whirled around, his dark purple cape like haori swished behind him as he slammed the door shut behind him. Hinata, terrified, ran over to the bed and flung herself onto it, finally breaking down and sobbing.

_Back at Konohagakure..._

"Who the hell does she think she is?" grumbled a certain ninja who always wears some article of clothing that is orange.

"Damn right!" said his younger friend.

"Dismissed. Rejected. Publicly humiliated. Why it's more than I can bear." Naruto pouted and turned his chair away. Konohamaru, feeling left out, ran in front of the twenty-year old and asked,

"More beer?" He turned the chair away again.

"What for? nothing helps. I'm disgraced." Naruto groaned.

"Who, you? Never, Naruto-sama, you've got to pull yourself together!" Konohamaru chided. He was still being ignored, the sixteen-year old sighed and sang," Geez, it disturbs me, Naruto, looking so down in the dumps. Every guy here'd love to be you, Naruto, even when taking your lumps." Cheering from other people in the bar rose around them. Naruto's lip tilted to a smirk.

"There's no ninja in town as admired as you, you're everyone's favorite guy, everyone's awed and inspired by you!" Konohamaru turned the chair around to face him. "And it's not very hard to see why! No one's slick as Naruto, no one's quick as Naruto. No one's next to incredibly thick as Naruto! For there's no man in town half as manly...perfect a pure paragon! You can ask Lee, Gai, and Chouji...and they'll tell you who's team they'd prefer to be on!" the teenage boy said. He swooped over to a table and pulled off Shikamaru's head protector. He ran to Naruto and tied it to his arm: The yellow haired man flexed his arm and cracked the metal plate into several pieces.

Konohamaru continued to dance around until a drunk Jiraiya and Kakashi who were wearing 'I Love Make Out Tactics! T-shirts swung him up by the hands and swung him around.

"No one's been like Naruto, a king-pin like Naruto." the perverted older men sang.

"No one's got a black hole for a stomach like Naruto!" sang Konohamaru. Naruto got smug his comfy chair and declared,

"As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating."

"My, what a guy that Naruto!" Everyone in the sake house sang. The perverts swung Konohamaru back and forth like a child between two parents. He tickled Naruto's chin who stood up with pride. "Give five sugois, give him power," the perverts said.

Konohamaru sang, "Naruto is the best, and all the rest are losers!" he swung up his arm in dance and threw a cup of sake to Naruto's face who punched Konohamaru in the face.

Everyone in the bar joined in, "No one fights like Naruto, no one bites like Naruto!"

"In battle, no one screws up like Naruto!" sang Shikamaru whom was promptly knocked out by a flying bottle of sake.

"For there's no one as burly and brawny." sighed the young adult girls. Naruto flexed his muscles.

"As you see I've got biceps to spare." he declared.

"Not a bit of him scraggly or scrawny..." the Sandaime's grandson sang.

"That's right! And every part of me's covered with hair!" Naruto began playful fights with a bunch of the men in the room and then lifted a bench with Ino, Sakura, Tenten, and Moegi on it. He dropped the bench on poor Konohamaru and unzipped his orange jacket to reveal his...charming chest.

"No one hits like Naruto, matches wits like Naruto!" said Kakashi and Jiraiya.

"Only because they're so low!" whispered Shikamaru to Neji who nodded in agreement.

Konohamaru said, "In a spitting match, nobody spits like Naruto!"

"I'm especially good at expectorating —Ptooey!" Naruto spit into a sake bowl. Everyone but Neji and Shikamaru sang,

"Ten points for Naruto!" Naruto played shogi with Shikamaru, then hit the board sending pieces flying everywhere along with a sweat drop forming on his opponents head.

"When I was a lad I ate four dozen ramen bowls, every morning just to help me get large! And now that I've grown I eat five dozen ramen bowls, so I'm roughly the size of a barge!" Naruto spun a bowl of bamboo shoot ramen on his forefinger and at the same time poured it into his open mouth. Konohamaru tried to mimic this but succeeded in only soiling his clothes with noodles, soup, and vegetables.

"No one aims like Naruto, makes those beauts like Naruto." sang everyone.

"Then goes around wearing orange like Naruto!" commented the younger boy.

"I use blood in al of my laundry washing!" Naruto sang, he then threw three exploding noted at three separate groups of sake varieties: making it rain sake. The blonde woman with the revealing shirt skipped around happily as she collected the raining sake in a bowl. He returned stomping to his chair where on the walls you can smell a strange scent on the red-brown designed wallpaper.

"My, what a guy! Naruto!!!!!!" yelled all of the villagers in the sake house.


	6. Vain Warnings

"Help! ANBU! Sanin! Hokage-sama!" anyone!" Hiashi cried as he limped into the sake house where a rainbow arched over their head from the misty sake air and lights. Everyone in the sake house turned to the old-timer who had crashed their merry singing and dancing.

"Lord Hiashi?" a bunch of them said in surprise. Naruto leaned over to Konohamaru and whispered,

"Who again is this old-man?" The boy almost fell over.

"He's Hinata-san's father!" Konohamaru explained.

"Please! I beg of you, I need your help! He' s got her! He has her locked in the dungeon!" The clan leader cried.

"Who?" Naruto's delinquent asked.

"Hinata-chan. We must leave. There's no time to lose!" He said to them as he limped into a nearby chair to support himself. Next to him was Jiraiya who was hanging out with a bunch of young women.

"Hey, slow down, Hiashi. Who's got my dear and sweet Hinata-chan locked in a dungeon and why doesn't she just do some sort of jutsu?" Naruto asked him as if he were a small child. Neji was cracking his knuckles and Tsunade was giving Naruto death glares because of the little respect he had given to the Hyuuga clan leader.

"A demon! A horrible, monstrous jinchuuriki!" Lord Hiashi literally cried with tears pouring down his face like Maito Gai and Rock Lee would when looking at a sunset. He went from person to person, pleading his case until he was thrown at the feet of Uzumaki Naruto. After a long and dreadful (or rather around three seconds) silence the room laughed at him.

"Is it a big demon?" asked a man puffing his heart away on a cigarette.

"Huge!"

"With a long and ugly tail?"

"Hideously ugly!" Hiashi explained. By then the mist of sake that had been hovering in the air had oozed into everyone's heads except for Konohamaru because he put a protection seal on his forehead since he was not of age to drink yet.

"And sharp, cruel fangs?"

"Yes, yes. Will you help me?" he begged. Naruto snickered.

"All right, old-man. We'll help you out." he nudged Konohamaru in the side and winked.

"You will? Oh, arigatogozaimashita!" Hiashi thanked them, bowing. Konohamaru regretfully picked up Hiashi with the help of Kiba and threw the near fifty year old out through the door. Rock Lee caught the old-man in a split second before he hit the ground, followed by Neji who preformed Jyuuken on Kiba as he passed by.

"Crazy old Hiashi. He's always good for a laugh." said a round man with swirls on his cheeks. Naruto poised his left hand tucked to his right side with his right scratching his chin.

"Crazy old Hyuuga, hmm? Crazy old Hyuuga. Hmm." Naruto mumbled, he paced around. "Konohamaru, I've been thinking." Hatake Kakashi, Hyuuga Neji, and Konohamaru reeled back in shock and horror. "I know, but that wacky old-man is Hinata-chan's father and his sanity _is _only a bit under stable. He struck a vain pose.

"Now the wheel's in my head have been turning, since I looked at that crazy old-man. See I promised myself that I'd be married to Hinata-chan, and right now I'm evolving a plan!" The yellow haired boy sang. He grabbed Konohamaru by the scarf and held his head close. "If I..." The man whispered.

"Yes?" said the third Hokage's grandson, begging him to continue.

"Then I..." he whispered.

"No, would she?" the teenager gasped.

"..._Guess_!" Naruto continued to whisper.

"Oh, now I get it Naruto-sama!" They stood side by side and dramatically except with less enthusiasm from the younger boy, punched the air and said together, "Let's go!"

"No one plots like Naruto, takes cheap shots like Naruto. Plans to persecute harmless crackpots like Naruto!" The boys sang.

"So his marriage we soon will be celebrating! my what a guy, Naruto!" sang the bar. Outside the sake house was Hiashi alone sitting in the nearby mitarashi restaurant. It was closing down. he sighed.

"Will no one help me?" he said to no one in particular. Neji had gone out to ask Tenten out on a date and Rock Lee had gone along to see how it would turn out.


	7. Politeness and Manners

The twenty-year old girl lay sprawled on her strawberry-cream colored bed, crying. _Clink, clink_ came from her white double doors. Hinata looked up from her fluffy white pillow and wiped her eyes, not that it would stop the salty water from prickling in her eyes again. She sniffled and got up from the bed. Walking to the doors she pulled them open. Unaware to her a white teapot with a purple lid and rim came in followed by a white teacup with a chip on its rim. "Hello? Is someone there? Who is it?" asked Hinata, still sticking her head cautiously out the doorway and looking from side to side into the gloomy hall.

"You can call me Temari-san!" said a female voice from below her. The Hyuuga's white-grey pupils became distinctly smaller as she slowly looked down. What she saw was a teacup with dark-purple eyes and a chipped teacup looking at her. "I thought you might like a cup of tea. We have oolong, jasmine, bancha, green, houjicha, gyokuro, joujicha and sencha." it said.  
"Yup!" said a younger feminine voice coming from the china cup. Contained in it were varieties of teabags. Hinata backed away from the tea set.

"B-but you...erm, I I mean... I-," Hinata stuttered until she had backed into her wardrobe that had not been there moments before.

"Oof. Please, be careful ma'am." said a quiet voice behind her. Hinata wheeled around and fell onto her bed in shock. The wardrobe had red eyes with swirls in them.

"This is...no, it _has_ to be genjutsu or ninjutsu...or perhaps a kuchiyose?" The black haired woman said to herself, trying to calm herself down. The wardrobe leaned onto the bed as if it were her shoulder: popping the other half of the bed and Hinata into the air.

"All jutsu including Kekkai Genkai are disabled in these castles grounds, so here we are!" she sadly but plaintively said. Hinata had fallen to the white carpeted ground still in a state of shock.

"I told you she was pretty Temari-oneechan!" Matsuri exclaimed as Temari poured some houjicha tea into her emptiness.

"Yes, yes Matsuri-chan. Here, this should do." Temari said, only half listening to the girl. Matsuri hopped over to Hinata who was still on the floor. "Don't spill it!"

"Arigatogazaimasu." the human girl said. Right when she was about to take a sip of tea Matsuri said,

"Watch this!" the cup took a deep breath and then blew bubbles out the top of the cup.

"Matsuri!" Temari snapped.

The cup looked guilty said, "Moushiwake arimasen." Hinata drank some of her tea. Its sweet taste now tasted bitter in her mouth as her sad feelings blended with it.

""That was very brave of you, what you did miss." Temari said to the human girl, trying to comfort her. The wardrobe Kurenai, nodded.

"We all think so." She said. Hinata slowly shook her head.

"But I've lost my father, my family, my dreams...and just...oh, everything!" she whimpered. She pulled her legs up against her chest and rested her head between her knees.

"Do cheer up, ma'am. It'll turn out all right in the end. You'll see." The teapot chided. Hinata looked up at the teapot, startled. "Oh, sumimasen. I'm just blabbering away when there's supper in need of preparing. Come along Matsuri-chan!" Temari apologized. The tea set hopped out the door.

"Ja ne!" said the teacup as it spun in the air in between one of its hops. Hinata stood up and un-ruffled her blue and white dress. Kurenai approached her.

"Well now, what shall we have you be wearing for tonight's dinner? let's see what's in my drawers..." she said. Her doors flew open and a moth or two fluttered out. Kurenai blushed embarrassed, and slammed them shut. "My apologies!" One door opened as she used her gold arm/handle to reach inside and pull out a kimono. It was light blue with a sakura blossom design on it, a black obi, and a pink bow the same color as the sakura. "You'll look so stunning in this!"

"That's very kind of you, but...I'm not going to dinner." Hinata quietly stated.

"Oh, but you must!" she said, looking shocked. Baki had waddled into the room since one of the doors was ajar.

"Konbonwa, madam. Your dinner...is ready." he bowed.

-To the large room where they were going to have dinner-

"What is taking so long? I told her to come down so why isn't she here yet?" hissed the raccoon-dog. Temari shifted uncomfortably on her glass tray.

"Please, try to be patient master. The girl has only just lost her father and her freedom all in one day." she said.

"Erm, master, have you thought that, perhaps, this girl could just happen to be the one to break the spell?" The candlestick, Kankurou, nervously asked. Shukaku whirled around and stared at the candlestick with his malicious yellow eyes.

"Of course I have. I am not a fool!" the demon barked.

"Good then! You fall in love with her, she falls in love with you, and viola the spell is broken and we'll all be humans again by midnight!" Kankurou optimistically exclaimed. Temari sighed and wacked him on his base with her handle.

"It's not _that _easy, Kankurou. These things take _time_."

"But the rose," he said, "it has already begun to wilt..." Shukaku exhaled deeply and sat down.

"It's no use. She's so pretty, and I'm so...well, look at me." he said downheartedly. Kankurou and Temari looked sadly at each other.

"Oh, you must help her see past all of that, master." she said. She poured some tea into his large cup.

"I don't know how."

"Well..." Temari haughtily said, "you can start by making yourself more presentable. Straighten up, try to act like a gentleman!" The ichibi sat up properly and straightened his face quite formally. Kankurou joined in.

"Ah, yes. When she comes in, give her a dashing, 'nice guy' smile. C'mon. Show me the smile!" he said. The demon bore his fangs in a disturbingly scary and yet funny grin. If the objects had hair it would have spiked out of control.

"Geez, don't frighten her!" Temari exclaimed.

"Impress her with your shogi and go level!"

"But be gentle and nice to her."

"Give her many compliments."

"But be sincere."

"And above all..." started Kankurou, The household objects finished together, "MIND YOUR TEMPER!"


	8. Rumbly Tummy

The creaking of a door opening sounded from behind him. Shukaku quickly shook off his silly 'smile' and looked up to the east wing. "Here she comes!" Kankurou excitedly said. A wooden like clopping came down the stairs showing it only to be a very nervous and guilty looking Baki.

"Oh, uh konbonwa, master, Temari-san, Matsuri-san, Kankurou-san." Baki softly muttered to them as he bowed his upper body. The ichibi went from somewhat pleasantly expectant to enraged.

"Where _is_ she?" Shukaku growled. The stout clock was looking at its stands/feet and popped up his head as if he were just then paying attention.

"Who?" Baki asked, trying to stall, "Oh, the girl. Yes, the, er girl...Well, actually, she's in the process of...well, the circumstances, being what they are is that," The demon ferociously glared at him. "She'snotcoming!" Baki quickly finished.

"WHAT!" the raccoon-dog's thunderous snarl echoed through-out the large room. The demon sprang out of his chair in rage, knocking it down, and ran up the wide set of stairs leading to the ballroom and then to the right to the East Wing. The objects struggled to follow him.

"Your Highness! Master, please! let's not be too hasty!" Baki and Kankurou yelled to him, stumbling as he charged ahead. Hinata had been staring out her balcony when she heard noises coming from the hallway. She went inside her room and closed the balcony door. The beast came to the girl's door and banged on it with his sand-yellow fists.

"I thought I told you to come down to dinner!" Shukaku barked.

"I'm not hungry!" came a muffled female voice. He slowly and angrily exhaled.

"You _will_ come out or I'll...I'll break down the door!" snarled the master of the castle. He felt a small tug on his haori and looked down.

"Master, I could be wrong, but I really don't think this is the best way to win a girl... this girl's affection." Kankurou said to him as Shukaku stamped out the fire on his black and white haori. Shukaku's eyes became all watery and shiny.

"But she's being so...difficult!" he excused.

"Please! At least try to be a gentleman. That ronin Orochimaru is more polite than you are!" Temari pleaded. He sighed, turned around to face the white double doors.

"Will you come down to dinner?" a dejected ichibi asked. He heard a light thump against the doors.

"No!" Hinata yelled, she had thrown a pillow at the wooden obstacle separating the two. He looked down to the household objects looking like a chibi, his eye's saying _'SEE?!'_

"Be suave, gentlemanly, charming..." Kankurou said with gestures of his arms with each word. Shukaku nodded and turned away.

"It would be to my honor and great pleasure if you would join me for dinner, madam." he said, bowing his upper body to the door.

"Ahem...say please!" whispered Baki.

"...Please." he finished as a sweat-drop formed by his head. Several seconds passed before the Hyuuga replied.

"No, thank you." Hinata said, surprised that he said those things.

"You can't stay in there forever." he softly said, trying to be comforting.

"Yes I can!" she childishly said. Shukaku's 'nice' mask was obliterated within less than a second and he became his old usual self: bitter, cold-hearted, selfish, and angry!

"Fine then! Suit yourself! Go ahead and STARVE!" he snapped. He whirled around to the objects and ordered, "If she doesn't eat with me, then she doesn't eat AT ALL!" Shukaku ran down the hall and then down the stairs, slamming the door shut with a loud bang behind him. A statue jiggled around and fell next to Kankurou who stood shocked in place before slowly scooting away.

"Well that went well, didn't it?" Temari sarcastically said.

"No it didn't!" said a shocked Matsuri. The other objects wavered to a side and would have fallen down if it will not have endangered their welfare.

"Kankurou-san, stand watch at the door and inform me at once if there's the slightest change!" Baki ordered. The candlestick hobbled over to the door and bowed.

"You can count on me, teichou(captain)!" the twenty-two year old candlestick said.

"Well, it's best I should be going downstairs to clean up." Baki said, turned around and waddled down the hallway.

-Shukaku's Room-

The sand-yellow beast was knocking down and destroying various things in his path of fury and of rage. "I ask kindly and I practically kowtowed to her, but she still refuses! What a...what the hell does she want me to do--beg?!" he hissed to himself. Shukaku turned to a large circular mirror that lay on its back on a table he had in the room. In the middle of the mirror was a small mound of sand. he picked up a dagger and slit it across his forefinger just enough to make it bleed a bit rather than a whole lot. He flicked his finger over the sand and as soon as a droplet of blood made contact with the broken down mineral the sand began to swirl around the rose red liquid. The swirling sand spiraled into a sphere, faster and faster, and when the spinning stopped an eyeball with a brown iris took its place. "Show me the girl." the raccoon-dog demon said to it. The iris and pupil contracted then dilated to normal. In the mirror the eyeball hovered over he saw the black-haired beauty talking to her wardrobe.

"Why the master is not so bad once you get to know him," Kurenai, the wardrobe chided the young woman, "Why don't you give him a chance?" Hinata turned her back to the furniture piece and folded her arms.

"I don't want to get to know him and I don't want to have anything to do with him!" she bitterly remarked.

Shukuku tenderly mumbled, "I'm just kidding myself. She'll never see me as anything more than a... a raccoon-dog demon. Zetsubou. It's hopeless." A red petal brushed by his foot as he sadly looked down. He downheartedly fell to his knees before the short table and rested his face in his paws.

_-Hinata's Room-_

Hinata stood up from the bed and apologized to Kurenai for being rude and tip-toed to the door. She put her forefinger to her lips to signal the wardrobe to be silent as she slowly wedged the door open. She silently emerged from her room and walked down the hallway to her left. from under a table with a long cloth over it a light could be seen under it.

"Oh, dear!" giggled a mischievous female voice.

"Oh, yes!" said a familiar male's.

"Oh, no!" Anko childlishly said.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes my sweet dumpling!" laughed Kankurou.

"I've been burnt by you before!" the woman warned him. She swished out from behind the cloth followed by the candlestick. Kankurou looked up to see the Hyuuga first girl walking down the hallway. He punched the air, nearly catching fire to Anko's purple feathers as he brought his fist up.

"Sugoi! She has come out!" he exclaimed.

-Kitchen-

"C'mon Matsuri-chan, into the cupboard with your brothers and sisters!" Temari said as she nudged the teacup towards the cupboard.

"But I'm not sleepy Temari-oneesan!" yawned the girl.

"Yes you are."

"No, I'm...not..." she fell asleep. Temari shut the cupboard doors with her spout. A banging of pots and pans came from the frying board.

"I work and slave all day, and for what? A culinary masterpiece gone to waste!" it loudly complained.

"Shut up, it's bee a long day for all of us." Temari said to him.

"Well, if you ask me," grumbled Baki, "she was just being stubborn. The master did, after all, say 'please'."

"But if the master doesn't learn to control that temper of his, he'll never break the-," started Temari before she was cut off by Baki. Hinata had somehow found the kitchen through aimless strolling.

* * *

**Kowtowing is when you kneel and touch your head to the ground. Yeah, redid this chapter again because I saw a lot of spelling errors and had to correct Sai to Matsuri. Sorry Story Alert people!**


	9. Be Our Okyakusan!

Baki turned his head to Hinata and became polite and gentlemanly," It's nice to see you out and about ma'am." The candlestick came hobbling into the kitchen. "My name is Baki, you can address me as Baki-san, I am head of the household." He took her hand to kiss it until he was curtly interrupted by Kankurou. Gloom surrounded the clock's body, "And this, is Kankurou."

"Konbonwa, honored okyakusan..." Kankurou said before he took the extended hand Baki was going to kiss.

"If there is anything...stop that...that we can-out of my way!" Baki said as he struggled to talk to Hinata until he was forced to shoved Kankurou who was kissing the girl's hand out of the way. "If there is anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable, please notify myself or another one of us."

The candlestick put his hand to Baki's arm and bruntly burned him. "Erh! Bastard..." Baki muttered as he rubbed his marred gold handle. About to speak, a low grumbling noise sounded. The three sweat-dropped.

"I-I am _a little_ hungry." she sheepishly said. Those words were like an alarm clock for Temari.

"Hey, you hear that? She's hungry! Stoke the fire, get out the silver, wake up the china!" she exclaimed n a hurried fashion. The stove, upon hearing this, roared to life as the drawers opened to reveal several spoons, authentic looking chopsticks, and the occasional fork. Baki jumped in thee air and spun around, waving his hand horizontallyat his neck mouthing _'NO!"_

"Remember what the master said!" he hoarsly said. A puff of steam rose from Temari's sput.

"Ugh, whatever. I'm not going to let anybody in this household go hungry." Temari scoffed. The clock glowered with rage.

"Fine. A glass of water, a crust of bread, and then-."

"Baki!" Kankurou gasped, "I am ashamed of you. She's not here as a prisoner. She's our honorable guest! We need to make her feel welcome here." he scolded the older piece. Turning to Hinata he said, "Please follow me, madam."

"Well keep it down. If the master finds out about this, it will be our lives as payment!" said Baki to Kankurou. The candlestick waved his hand in acknowledgement.

"Yes, yes, of course. But what is dinner without a little music?" Kankurou laxly commented. Kankurou made his way out the swinging doors. As the door swung back it hit the short clock: sending him flying into a pan with fried tofu. During his flight he yelped,

"_MUSIC_?!"

-Dining Room-

The human girl was seated at a long traditional table on a comfy white pillow. A spotlight seemingly coming out of nowhere shined upon her and then moved onto Kankurou who stoodon the table further away.

"Welcome, honored guest. It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that I welcome you tonight. And now, we invite you to relax. Let us pull up a chair as the Dining Room proudly presents...your dinner." Kankurou introduced.

"Be... our guest, be our guest. Put our service to the test, place your napkin on your lap, dearie, and we provide the rest!" he sang. The napkin on the table before her flipped into the air and neatly folded itself onto the fronts of her thighs.

"Soup du jour, hot hors d'oevres. I wish I knew the defintion of these words! Try this burger, it's delicous! Don't believe me? Ask the Americans!" Kankurou said with his charming and matured voice ashe held out a platter with a burger with a lot of mayonaisse in it. Hinata kindly took it from him but when he turned aroundshe threw it behind her ending with a clatter.

"They can sing, they can dance, after all this is Sunagakure! And the dishes here are never second best! Go unfold your menu, take a place and then you'll Be our guest, be our guest, be our guest!"

At then end of the table was a cabinet with the spotlight set upon it, opening to reveal a large china collection which hopped onto the white table below it. Kankurou slid on his base to Hinata's end of the table and handed her a menu that had some how appeared in his wax hands. She began to read.

"Varieties of ramen, chuzake, along with some matsutake! We'll prepare and serve with flaire, a culinary cabaret!" Kankurou sang as he danced and swung around the china glasses. More dishes came spinning by, in a bowl of steamed egg was Baki. The candlestick flew to the bowl, poured a liquid of some sort on it and set it aflame: sending the poor stout clock flying onto the table covered with soot and egg.

"You're alone, and your're scared," Kankurou sang, Hinata put her delicate fingers to her mouth, giggled and blushed. "But the banquet's all prepared! No one's gloomy or complaining, While the silverware's quite entertaining!" Plates zipped through the air and thudded against the walls like thrown shurikens or kunai, a few landing near the Hyuuga.

"We tell jokes, I do tricks. With my fellow candlesticks." Kankurou said as he was elevated on a plate he stood on, juggling his candles. The teacups around him declared,

"And it's all in perfect taste, that you can bet!" They began hopping over one another, passing ingredients to a tea recipe to another.

"Come on and lift your glass, you've won your own free pass To be out guest, be our guest, be our guest!" All of the animated objects sang in chorus. Kankurou added in,

"If you're stressed, it's fine miso we suggest!"

"Be our guest, be our guest, be our guest!" The spot light panned onto Kankurou with an uneased Baki in the backround, weary from being pushed around and picked upon all day. The clock began to inch away until the candlestick swung an arm around him and held him in place.

"Life is so unnerving, for a ninja who's not...ninja-ing. He's not whole without a soul to wait upon." moaned the candlestick. An exhausted Baki frutlessly tried to push away Kankurou.

"Get off!" he grumbled.

"Oh, those good old days when we were useful. Suddenly, those good old days are gone."Kankurou reminisced. White somethings began falling from the ceiling. Baki stuck out his tongue so one should perhaps fall there.

"Is this rice?!" he exclaimed. He looked up oto see the spoons flinging rice this way and that.

"For years now we've been rusting, needing so much more than dusting. Needing excercise, a chance to use our skills!" he moaned. He brushed off the rice on Baki's brown head who was trying to escape. The stout clock tripped from the light touch and fell into a soft silken tofu mold. "Most days just lay around the castle, flabby fat and lazy. Then you walked in and oops-a-daisie!" Kankurou sang as he jumped onto a ladel in the tofu for the soup: catapulting Baki out of the bean plant and onto the table.

"It's a guest, it's a guest! This is awesome, it's a guest!" whooped Temari in the kitchen. "Where's the sake**(A/N: It's pronounced as Sah-kay!)**?Who cares if she's not of age. I've had the napkins freshly pressed!" She continued to dance and spin around on her base. 'With dessert she'll want tea. And who doesn't? It's fine with me! While the cups do their soft shoeing, I'll be bubbling, I'll be brewing!

I'll get warm, oh-so hot! Oh my god, is that a spot? Clean it up, we want the okyakusan impressed! We've got a lot to do-does she like meat or fish? For you our guest!" she sang. A napkin scrubbed her clean and so she hopped down onto the tea cart and rolled into the dining room, offering tea to Hinata. All of the household objects joined in,

"She's our guest!"

"She's our guest!" sang the teapot.

"She's our guest! Be our guest! Be our guest! Our command is your request! It's been years since we've had anyone here, and we're obsessed! With your meal, with your ease. Yes, indeed we aim to please! While the candlelight's still glowing, let us help you. We'll keep going!" The multiple candlesticks stacked onto one another to form a human-like body. A DDR appeared out of nowhere and the candlestick body began to dance on level Heavy, making it look like they were river dancing! They did a backflip and ended up near Kankurou who began to loudly sing,

"Course by course! One, by one till' you shout, _'Enough, I'm done!'_ Then we'll sing you off to sleep as you digest. Tonight you'll prop your feet up, but first let's eat up. Be our guest, be our guest, beour guest! Please be our guest!"

With that the song ended with a amazingly fantastic finale made up of silverware flying through the air, plates and featherdusters dancing, and Baki was the star of attention until Kankurou slid to the area and knocked him off screen.

* * *

**That took a frigging long time to do so if you're going to point out spelling mistakes, don'tt expect them to be fixed:P Thanks for reading and please review! Okyakusan means guest. Matsutake is an expensive type of mushroom and chuzake is cooked rice with green tea other ingredients like salmon.**


	10. Get the Facts Straight!

"Sugoi!" the Hyuuga main branch girl awed.

"Arigatou, arigatogozaimasu, okyakusan. A good show wasn't it everyone?" Baki tensely tensely said. Looking at his own face by going cross-eyed he exclaimed, "Oh, my god, would you look at the time! Off to bed, off to bed!" Kankurou hopped over next to Baki.

"Oh, please don't. It's my first time in a non-genjutsu or non-kuchiyose castle, least most of all an enchanted one."

"Enchanted? Who said anything about this castle being enchanted?" the clock tried to cover up as two chopsticks were sword-fighting by. He turned to Kankurou. "It was you, wasn't it?" He began to try to smack the candlestick with his gold handles, Kankurou easily dodging the short arms. It was like trying to avoid being hit by a tyrannosaurus rex's arms.

"I-I figured it out by myself I suppose." Hinata told them. The objects who had been bickering before looked at her then stopped their pointless duel. Baki dusted himself off as Kankurou fixed his wax nose and bits of purple wax design. "I would actually like to look around, if that's alright." she stated.

"Oh! Would you like a tour?" asked an excited Kankurou.

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm not so sure that's such a good idea." Baki said, turning to the candlestick he said, "We can't just let her go around poking into certain places, if you know what I mean." Hinata picked up Baki from the mantel thing on his head, pulling him up to her eye level.

"Or perhaps_ you _could take me. I'm sure you know everything there is to know about this castle." she sneered.

"W-w-well, yes, actually, I do." he stuttered, somewhat flattered in a frightened way.

-Hallways-

Hinata, Baki, and Kankurou and the dark red footstool walked/hopped/waddled through the gloomy hallways of the castle as Baki lectured them. "As you can see, the once white walls here have been stripped away by time over the years to reveal these grey stone walls. Do note the inverted vaulted ceilings: another example of that Kimori Period, and as I always say, if it's not from the past year then don't bother fixing it! Heh, heh, heh, now where was I-?" Baki spun around on a stand of his and scolded the samurai suits of armor to get back to their posts for they were following the trio. "Now would you drow your attention to the maple wood flying buttress above the--okyakusan?" The clock turned back to the group to find only a bored-out-of-his-mind Kankurou. Beyond them, Hyuuga Hinata was ascending the grand staircase. Kankurou, finally coming toattention looked behind him as well and ran with Baki to catch up with the human.

"What's up there?" the girl asked as Kankurou and Baki jumped before her in hopes of blocking her way any further.

"Where, up there?" exasperated Baki. "Nothing! Absolutely nothing of interest at all in the West Wing, to you that is. It's dull, and boring, _very_, very oh-so boring!"Kankurou tipped to his side and sweat-dropped. Baki nudged him and they nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"Oh, I see. So thats the West Wing." confirmed Hinata. Kankurou bitch-slapped Baki across the face.

"Nice going, bakka!" he muttered.

"I wonder what he's hiding up there..." the first born main branch child though aloud.

"He'snothidinganythingwhat-so-ever!" Baki quickly said as he rubbed his pained face.

"Then it wouldn't be forbidden." she dead-panned. Stepping over them she was about to advance up the stairs until the objects dashed in front of her once more.

"Perhaps you would like to see some exquisite tapestries dating all the way back to the-."

"Maybe later." she said in an irritated manner. Just because the castle's enchantments stopped her from using any type of jutsu, it didn't hold back the strength that she had built up over the years. She flew her left hand to the ground, met it with Baki's head an did a flip over him, landing ever so lightly on her black-sandaled feet to return to walking up the long staircase. The small clock tipped to the side and would have fallen down like five steps (which is a lot to someone of their size) if Kankurou hadn't stuck his hand of wax to the back of Baki's four-sided head.

"We have a garden, a library as well!" cried out Baki in his low voice as he scraped off the dried wax on his wooden back. Hinata stopped in mid-step and put her foot down slowly.

"You have a ..._library_?" she asked with great interest yet disbelief, looking to them from the side, her black bangs making a shade over everything above the tip of her nose. She felt flabbergasted that such a gloomy, dusty, old place such as the place she was in now could ever possible have a library. The objects took a step back/ sideways as to not fall off the stair again.

"Y-yes, okyakusan." the clock nervously said as she slowly turned around to face them, still thrilled that he had found something of interest to her. Kankrou decided to speak up.

"With books!" he exclaimed. Baki sweat-dropped and nearly fell over.

"Of course it has books you bakka! That's what a library pretty much is! A room filled with books!" Baki whispered, holding back the urge to smack the younger object upside the heaad. So to prove it, he opened up his body, took ou the clock, and flipped it over to reveal a screen and a holographic keyboard. Baki went onto and searched up the definition of a library. A rabbity-looking thing with a pink ball drooping off its single antenna and wearing a breen scarf around its neck appeared on the circular screen.

"Kupo! You got definitions!" it said in a high bubble voice that was neither male nor female. He scrolled down the list of definitions by moving his minute hand beneath the screen and his face lit up, happily.

"See!" he said, jabbing his gold-mitted hand at the screen. "_A room where books are kept_," he read aloud. He turned around the circular screen/clock window and set it back in its place. Hinata's interest began to wane and so Kankurou spoke up once more of the library.

"It has gads of books!" he declared.

"Romance!" sighed Baki, hearts fluttered around his head.

"Horror!" shivered Kankurou, his fires nearly whisped out.

"Manga!" Baki stated.

"The Icha Icha Paradise series!" mischieviously said Kankurou, earning him a smack upside the head from Baki's hand.

"More books than you'll ever be able to read in a lifetime!" The objects led her down the stairway to the left, when like a child, the Hyuuga girl's attention span broke and so she turned back to wandering thw West Wing. Her excitement of this new place however, began to dwindle as she walked down through the gloomy hall leading to the monster's lair. As she strolled down the hallway, she paused for a brief moment to look into the shattered remains of a mirror, each fairly big piece reflected her concerned white eyes and expression. Reaching the end of the hallway she found to the right of a beautiful dusty window. She put her hand to the window pane and smudged off some dirt and other bacterial things off of the glass: moonlight flew through the holes she had made. The doors had handles shaped like demons, or one of them atleast. One had a crescent moon shaped on his human-like face with long hair. anf hot girly-looking eyes. The other handle had a human face, long thick bangs, an angry facial expression unlike the other one's doer expression. He, the second handle, also had pointed dog ears sticking out the top of his head. Taking a deep breath she took the handle's heads and pushed the doors open. The probably once-white carpeted floors were now in ugly shade of pasty-grey and to the right of her was a bed, destroyed as if something had jumped onto from a high distance or had thrown an anchor onto it.

She walked past a low traditional-looking table, tripped over a gourd that was in the middle of the room for some reason, and knocked over the table: only to catch it thanks to her swift reflexes. She stood up and turned her head to see a shredded portrait on the wall. She lifted the strips of canvas that had not yet fallen to the ground and saw a sad blue eye and blood red hair almost covering it. To the corner of her eye to her right she spied a bell jar with a blue rose inside of it, magically suspended within. Walking over to it with her white eyes transfixed, she reached out and lifted off the jar, leaving the rose unprotected, and set the jar aside. She reached out to touch the blue rose that seemed to emit a light of its own. As she neared it, a shadows loomed onto her. Shukaku had been on the balcony and had noticed noises coming from his room.

Jumping back into the room, he picked up the glass bell jar with only his thunb, index, and middle claws/fingers and put it back over the rose. He then turned his attention to Hinata. "Why did you come here?!" he roared at her. His raccoon-like face neared hers. She backed away, frightened,

"S-sumimasen! I'm sorry, I-" she started off.

"I warned you to never come here!" the raccoon-dog demon hissed.

"I didn't mean any harm!" she told him, carefully maneuvering her way backwards through the beast's extremely messy room. Nevertheless, he just grew angrier.

"Do you realize what you could have done?" he seethed, he pushed away a sofa in his way with ease which made it smash against the walls of peeling light blue paint: making a rather large dent in the wall. He thrashed at more pieces of furniture.

"Please, stop this! No!" she pleaded him, although still scared.

"Get out!!_ GET OUT_!!" he screamed. Taking his words, Hyuuga Hinata turned around and fleed from the room. As he saw the innocent young woman run from the room. What had become of anger was calm, and what had formed from calmness was then sad rage. He fell to his knees, holding his head in his paws. Despaired upon finally realizing that he had destroyed his chances with the girl he knew not the name of.

The black-haired girl rushed down the staircase, three steps at a time, and grabbed her coat hanging off a coat-hanger that was hanging out with a group of napkin rings, also bursting past a confused Baki and Kankurou who was flirting with Anko. Kankurou smoothed his waxy hea, standing flabbergasted as he watched Hinata run toward the door. "Whe-where are you going Okyakusan?" he stammered.

"Promise or no promise, I'm a weakling without my ninjutsu and I can't stay here for another minute with that demon!" Hinata yelled to him. Baki stood stiff as he heard this from her. He played it back in his mind _"I can't stay here for another minute!"_ Slower. "_Iiiyy caaann''tt ssttaaayyye ahhnuuhtheer miinuuhteee." _

"Okyakusan-dono! Please, wait! Don't go!" he cried. Anko was about to yell something also but Hinata had slammed the doors behind her by that time. The candles in the room saddened, thus darkening the room. Kankurou, Baki, and Mitarashi Anko's face fell into gloom and sadness.


	11. Thanks For Touring the Forest of Death!

Hinata ran with her pale arms flowing behind her, through the dark Forest of Death that stretched from Konohagakure to all the way to where ever she was now. With the super-speed of Rock Lee, she reached a large tree and rested by it. _"Byakugan!"_ she said to herself. Quick movement was made to her far left to near her blind spot. _"What was that?" _A gigantic wolf lunged at her, Hinata made a backward sprint and while in the air still she threw an explosion note nearby it. More gigantic wolves, probably Kuchiyose animals, came rushing out of the woods and slowly stalked towards her. She threw a flash bomb at them and ran away from the direction of the castle. "Where did _they_ come from?!" she said to herself. She came into a bright, clear and white opening: the vast grey sky filled with snowflakes. She squinted her Byakugan eyes for she had just been running through a dark forest. "I can't see dammit!" Her blue boots that went to just below her knees met with a slippery surface that gave off a chilling fog, tingling her skin.

_"Ice!?_" her mind screamed. She tried to balance herself by concentrating more on sending chakra to the bottoms of her feet but the icy surface was still yet too slippery. As she neared the center of the mirror-like lake, cracks began to web themselves all around her within a yard. It sounded throughout the evening like gunfire. With the added weight of the humongous wolves chasing her, many of them drowned, and two to three injured themselves on some jagged pieces of ice and or rock. Only a remaining few continued to pursue her for some unknown reason. She had finally gotten to the other side of the beautiful lake when some wolves that had miraculously healed from their ice-wounds came rushing towards her from around the lake. Just as she was about to throw a few kunai at them, one lunged at her in a blink of an eye and snagged onto her hand. "Ahhhhhggggg!!!" she screamed.

Hyuuga Hinata fell to the ground and just as another giant wolf that looked like it came from the Final Fantasy series was about to rip out her throat a large sand-yellow paw knocked the canine-thing aside with a brisk sweep. Seeing as how most and many raccoon-dogs hibernate during the winter, the Shukaku was wearing down in the low-temperature weather. He stood between Hinata and the wolves. Three of seven of the large wolves lunged at his neck: the ichibi dodged and swatted away one of them, injured another, but that and another took it's mark at his shoulder. With a raspy growl, he pried off the two wolves, smashed their heads together creating a gruesome sight of blood, fur, and intestines in _the_ snow, and he threw them into the cracking lake. All but one of the wolves then fled and disappeared into the dark forest. The wolf's eyes glowed with malice and it said to them in a low male voice,

"We _will_ get you someday, jinchuuriki, someday soon." Electric-blue chakra strings were seen around, quickly dissipating into the air and so with that said it disappeared in a poof of smoke. The demon Tanuki looked to Hinata endearingly with its yellow eyes and collapsed. Hinata walked a few meters away from the fallen demon, but then daggers of guilt jabbed her in the heart_. "He_ did _come all this way and save me_..."

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" she commanded her chakra, with her index and middle fingers crossing the other hand's index and middle fingers to make a cross shape. She had learned this jutsu from Naruto when he had made the occasional kidnapping of her, probably the only good the blonde shinobi was to her. Four replicas of Hinata appeared in the snowy forest by her. The original Hyuuga Hinata supported the beast's right arm and side, another was to the left of his body, another two supported his legs, and the fourth Hinata held up the fluffy, bushy tail. "Wow!" the fourth Hinata supports the tail exclaimed. The other Hinatas quickly looked back to see what she was yelling about. "His tail is _so_ silky, and soft, and fluffy, and squishy, and..._awww_!" Hinatas one through three and the original dropped the body pieces they were holding up and went to go pet the Shukaku's tail.

"No wonder people wear raccoon-dog furs!" one of the Hinata's sighed. Another Hinata elbowed that Hinata in the ribs, she was the animal-lover Hinata. After another minute or two of this they proceeded to carry the demon back to the castle, it was quite easy really too, with the gigantic footprints in the snow and all. Kankurou was dancing with Mitarashi Anko (the feather-duster) when he saw a bunch of Hinatas trying hard not to lug his master through the beautifully decorated and carved double doors.

"Okyakusan!" the shiny candlestick half yelled and half gasped, dropping Anko to the floor. Baki came around the corner in a fit.

"Oh, Kankurou-chan! Please don't yell in the castle-" he said, with his eyes closed. The stout clock opened his black eyes to see his lord on the ground. "Master!" Baki ordered dozens of rolling pins to help get the Shukaku to the den.

_-The Den-_

"I need some hot water!" Hinata ordered the household objects. A broom with split bristles made to form legs and pieces of wood attached to the main part nodded and rushed off with another falling in shadow of it.

"Out of the way!" said a loud voice. Temari came hobbling in with Matsuri close behind with fluffy white rags balanced carefully on her rim. The sand-yellow beast sat on a large crimson sofa with Hinata tending to his wounds. The black-haired girl took a rag and poured some hot-water out of Temari on to it. She rubbed away some blood only to get a growl of pain from the beast.

"Stop that would you! It hurts and I can heal on my own!" he snarled. To her own amazement, the deep wounds on his shoulders began to sew together on their own. "See, I told you so." He childishly stuck out his tongue at her. His irises and pupils grew small as he then coughed up blood.

"Master!" Baki, Kankurou, Temari, Anko, Matsuri, and all the other objects with vocal cords gasped. The blood near matched the colour of the sofa he and Hinata were sitting on. Hinata put her hand on his back and tried to heal him with her medical-nin techniques, only to remember that not even Kekkei Genkai worked within the castle.

"I can heal you if you would step outside the castle grounds for a quick moment!" she told him. He shook his furry head,

"You would only try to escape again." he muttered loud enough for her to hear.

"No, I won't. You saved my life and now I can try to save yours, believe it!" stated the human. The Shukaku sighed and finally gave in. Hinata helped him walk to the gates of the castle. He plopped down on the ground. and leaned against the wall. "Now just hold still, this might sting a little bit." A green glow of chakra appeared around her right hand as she held it against his fuzzy yellow chest for a few seconds, she then moved to his shoulder. She grunted and the chakra around her hand "Those wolves that had attacked you, I think they were puppets...but they had poison in their fangs." The Tanuki's golden eyes narrowed.

"Do what you must to get it out." he deadpanned. She nodded, from her hip holster she drew out a kunai and made a small prick in his chest near the heart, just enough to draw out blood. Using the snow around her she created a bubble with her chakra and inserted it into his heart. Ever slowly she wearily too out the bubble, within it floated a purple and red liquid, she threw the bubble over the gate, landing with a light _pop _and_ splat._ She healed the small prick with the chakra in her thumb and told him that she was finished.

"You should be more careful." she advised him.

"Well if you hadn't run away, this wouldn't have happened!" he snidely said.

"Well if _you_ hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have run away!" she childishly retorted.

"Well, _you_ shouldn't have been in the West Wing!" he snapped, his eyes were now all beady, in a humorous way. All was silent for several seconds. Spoken more tenderly, Hyuuga Hinata said,

"Thank you, thank you so much for saving my life." The raccoon-dog's golden eyes opened, looking surprised.

"You're welcome."


	12. Marry Me Neji!

The blonde shinobi Naruto sat inside his private sake house, accompanied by his lackey Konohamaru and friends of Konohamaru: Moegi and Udon. "Moegi and I usually don't leave the farm all alone and it took us a while to find a guard so we hired Kiba-san along with his dog." Udon said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Yeah, so this had better be good!" said Moegi. Naruto snapped his fingers and a boy with an Anbu mask made of carboard and tape and crayons came up to him.

"Give me two bottles of sake and three bowls of deluxe ramen!" Naruto demanded the younger boy.

"YES, NARUTO-DONO!" the boy responded, in a brisk step he was in the backroom kitchen cooking the ramen at great speed. Moegi and Udon's eyes became all big and bubbly, filling with tears as well, their lips mouthing a thank you.

"Well, you see... I'm madly in love with Hyuuga Hinata, but she doesn't seem to like me very much, so I think she just needs a little bit more persuasion." said Naruto. He said this to them in a strange stuffy accent like a fat guy or something with stuffy cheeks as if he had put mochi in them and he was in a nice suit as well. Konohamaru leaned across the table and explained to Moegi and Udon,

"Yup! She turned him down like that time we put a Sika deer in the same pen as an Asian Leapord cat!" A vein popped on Naruto's forehead and with that he smacked away the scarfed boy. The strange costume, accent, and rotund cheeks disappeared when his hand smacked away Konohamaru.

"Everyone knows her father's a wanna-be ninja artist and went a bit over-confident and stuff after being exposed to those fumes that escaped the green-houses," said the still-Chuunin, "He was even in here tonight when I was having an open party..." Moegi shook her head at this.

"Lord Hiashi may be a bit on the brash and strange side nowadays but he's never harmed anybody verbally or physically." defended the girl.

"Anyway...what I'm trying to get to is that Hinata-chan would do just about anything to keep him from being locked up." Konohamaru got back up, swiping his hand against his head to wipe away some blood.

"Yeah! Even marry him I'll bet you!" he exclaimed. The blonde ninja gave him a creepy yet threatening look, making the third Hokage's grandson slither away and hide behind his friends. Udon spoke up,

"So you want us to, like stab ourselves or something and then frame Lord Hiashi for it so he can be thrown into the prison?" Uzumaki Naruto grinned and vigorously nodded.

_-The Hiashi House-_

Lord Hyuuga Hiashi was seen exiting the gates of his house with packages and clothes wrapped up in sheets supported by a back-pack like thing he wore upon his aging back. "If no one will persist in helping me, then I'll just have to go back alone." He carefully shut the gate he had opened close so as not to disturb the romantic evening Neji was having with Tenten. He did a flash-step and disappeared from sight just as Naruto, Konohamaru, and the kid from Naruto's private sake house arrived. Naruto pulled open the doors with great ease: they quickly shut behind him resulting in broken noses from his minions. The orange-clad ninja shuffled through the deep snow and came to the raised wooden floors. He respectively took off his boots on the stone floor and stepped onto the platform, knocking loudly on the wooden part of the screen door.

"Oh, Hinata-chan! Lord Hiashi! Is anyone home?!" he bellowed in his unmatured, still scratchy teenager voice. Tenten was resting her head on Neji's lap in front of the fireplace when she heard the racket. Neji awoke as well.

"Neji-kun, do you hear that as well?" she softly said, her chocolate brown eyes melting into his white ones. He nodded. She sat up properly.

"I'll go see who it is." he endearingly said to her before kissing her on the forehead. She giggled and watched him walk away putting his coat on. _Byakugan!_ _"Oh, it's just that idiot Genin Uzumaki. What the hell does he want here? Lord Hiashi and Hinata are away."_ Neji thought. He slid open the door. Naruto's eyes were closed for some reason.

"Konbonwa, Hinata-chan!" he said. Still with his eyes closed for some odd reason, he knelt down and took Neji's left hand in his. Neji readied the Jyuuken in his right palm. "WILL YOU MARRY ME HINATA-CHAN?!" Tenten curiously looked over her shoulder to see Naruto on his knees holding Neji's hand.

"Neji-kun?" she asked. She walked over to the two men and hugged Neji's right side for warmth. It had already been a long period of silence even before Tenten joined them and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki opened his blue eyes. His jaw would have fallen off if not for the skin and muscles holding it up for him.

"NEJI?! WHERE'D HINATA-CHAN GO?!" he cried as he jumped back a bit, far enough so he wouldn't fall off the wooden platform. With a vein popped upon Neji's forehead he calmly and irritably said to the immature man,

"Lord Hiashi and Hinata-sama are out on vacation right now. Please leave the premises now, Naruto." Uzumaki folded his arms and glared at the fair-skinned man.

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! I'LL BET YOU'RE JUST SLOWING ME DOWN SO THAT HINATA-CHAN CAN HAVE MORE TIME FITTING ON HER WEDDING GOWN SO I CAN PROPOSE TO HER AND---!!!"

"Jyuuken!" Neji yelled. The force of the chakra sent into Naruto's body sent him flying far above and past the gate through the roof of the women's indoor hot spring house. Screams and clashings of metal were heard in the far distance. Neji handed Tenten a pair of binoculars to see what was happening as they stood on the rooftop of the Hyuuga Household. As Naruto was thrown into the snow outside the indoor hot spring's territory he could have been recognized as Snow White. With skin as white as snow, lips and cheeks: the colour of blood, and there were many blackening bruises on Naruto's head where the girls and women relaxing at the house had torn out his hair and elsewhere. The dark-brown haired girl put down the binoculars and looked up to the long-haired man.

"Hey, Neji-kun?" she said.

"Hmmn?" he still had a satisfied smirk on his face after witnessing what had resulted in Naruto's proposal to marry Hinata a few minutes earlier.

"How did you know that we would be able to see Naruto getting beat up at the hot springs house from this view?" she accusingly asked. His pink cheeks because of the cold weather turned beet red. In a quick moment he knelt down and hugged Tenten's waist.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" he complimented.

"Neji-kun! Get off of me! You haven't answered my question! NEJI!!!"

**No, there was not any request for a TentenxNejixNarutoasskicking moment, I just felt like doing this! ;P Flame me(I mean like something really horrible, a tip or comment is not much of a flame) and I'll give you a rotting cookie :P Please review and thanks so much for reading!!! And the thing about Naruto having the stuffed cheeks and the suit was from the Godfather and other stuff I think… I was influenced by Phil of the Future when my sisters were watching it on tv!**


	13. Table Manners for Dummies

Outside in the glittering white courtyard of Shukaku's castle was Hinata, a true Snow White with skin as fair as snow, hair as black as a raven, and cheeks as red as blood, well not _really_ _really_ but still. She was having a snowball fight with the footstool and Chip who had tied his base to a branch so as to be used as a catapult for the snow. This brought life to the dead castle. Up on an overlooking balcony was the Shukaku in a green polyester, feather-stuffed, dry-clean washable only over coat, pacing the floor and leaving a clean stone floor discluding the snowflakes alighting to it due to his tail acting as a mop as he walked around. Baki and Kankurou looked on at their master and guest.

"I've... never felt this way about anyone before!" he said to himself. He paused in his pacing and looked to his servants that he thought of as his almost-friends, that waited on his every command. "I-I want to give or do something for her." said the raccoon-dog, embarrassment choking his words. "But what exactly?" Baki wiggled his way through some un-mopped snow and suggested to him,

"Well there is the usual things like...er, flowers! Chocolates, sweet promises that you don't really intend to keep..." The clock was shoved aside by Kankurou and a box of matches that assisted him in keeping his candles alit.

"No, no, no. It has to be something really special. Something that sparks her interest---wait a minute!" Kankurou gasped as he put his right candle and put it to his waxy chin, melting some of it off quite nicely as well.

_-flashback-_

_Baki: "We have a garden, a library as well!" Hinata turns around, her eyes were all big and glittery._

_"You have a library?!"_

_-End of Flashback, Which Actually Ended With Baki Hitting Him On The Head-_

"Hey, Kankurou!" Baki yelled. A big and eerily creepy smile was plastered on Kankurou's face.

"I just remembered! She seems to like libraries! Let us show her the castle's library!" he exclaimed. Baki raised an eyebrow-looking piece of wood on his head as he went through his memory to try to remember that event. His face lit up and he nodded vigorously. The giant mammal shrugged and went downstairs. He got to the courtyard and was about to address the Hyuuga before he was hit in the ear with a snowball. It went silent as if all the living creatures and elements in the world had perished. He shook his furry head to rid the snow.

"Hinata-san? There's something I would like to show you." he said as gently as he could with his raspy voice. She nodded and said okay, she promptly brushed off the snow on her jacket and ran to his side. "But it's a surprise so you'll have to close your eyes, okay?"

"Erm, whatever you say!" she giggled. She closed her white eyes and then put her pink hands because of the cold over her eyelids. Shukaku lead the young woman of twenty through a bunch of gloomy looking hallways and the two finally breached a large oak door. The tanuki opened the set of doors and lightly pushed her inside. "can I open them now?" she eagerly asked.

"Not yet, just wait here for second." he softly said to her as the best he could. He shuffled over to the wall-like windows and drew open the dusty royal-red curtains. Rays of light poured in, creating odd shadows due to snow, frozen to the glass. Even with her eyes closed she squinted them, feeling the darkness around her disappear as the light invaded the room.

"Now?" she asked. He smiled without showing his teeth/fangs

"Yes, now." replied the ichibi. Hinata's white eyes watered as she gasped aloud.

"Sugoi...I've never seen so many books in all my life! Even in Tsunade-sama's office!" she squealed as she slowly spun around the room.

"Do you like it?" he nervously asked the young woman. She slowly nodded her head.

"It's, this is wonderful!" she responded, her face was turned away from his as she gazed about the room. He smiled, finally showing his pearly white canines and molars. She turned around and an expression of shock and awe filled her face.

"Really? Kawaii! Oh, thank you so much!" she cried in a high-pitched squeal. Shukaku made a sad smile as the panel cut to Baki, Kankurou, Temari, and Matsuri who were looking on at the two near behind the door.

"Would you look at that?" Temari scoffed, in her voice though there was good intentions and a smile on her china face. Kankurou grinned.

"Ha, ha! I knew it would work!" he said as he stuck out his tongue at Baki. Matsuri's rim raised around her eyebrows should be if she had any.

"What? What are you guys talking about?" the ten-year old teacup asked.

"It's very encouraging." Baki said with his brown eyes closed.

"This is so awesome!" cheered Mitarashi Anko.

"I didn't see anything." complained Matsuri, unable to see the possibility of romance between a demon and human. Temari sighed and told Matsuri that there were chores to be done in the kitchen. "But what are they talking about?! Oneechan!" the girl whined as Temari pushed her towards the kitchen.

_-Morning of the Next Day-_

Hinata rose that day out of her huge bed and put on her blue sleeveless dress over her white long-sleeved shirt. She came to the kitchen with the help of Anko guiding her and arrived at the table. Shukaku was already on the other side of the long table. He seemed to be happy that she had arrived downstairs.

"You are finally here!" he said, pleased. Hinata bowed a bit and sat down.

"Sorry if I kept you." she told him, her pale cheeks were now pink. He shook his furry head and gestured for her to eat. Before her was a bowl of rice, a small bowl or raw egg, and a little dish with soyu/soy sauce in it with a plate with fried bean curd, clams, and seaweed leaves. "This looks great, thank you."

"I have also asked the kitchen to prepare some sweet dumplings as a dessert." With that done and said he poured the soyu sauce into the raw egg bowl and added the bean curd dish and then poured that into the rice. It was what one was meant to do but he did it very hastily as he began to gobble up the mixture like an animal. Hinata watched this performance with great disgust. As the cart holding the sweet dumplings wheeled around the corner of the table where the demon was, Shukaku grabbed a handful of the wooden skewers which the dumplings were strung through. Matsuri began to giggle as her master ate his breakfast with no table manners whatsoever until Temari shot her an admonishing look.

Hinata turned her head away from the tanuki and began to set up her breakfast in a far more polite manner. Matsuri came to the rescue by scooping a spoon into her container and then jumping off the sweet dumplings cart, landing onto the table. She then came near the Shukaku's plate, by a safe distance, and nudged a pair of chopsticks towards him as well as leaning the spoon in her body towards him. He stopped his thrashing about with his food to look at the cup. He attempted to pick up the chopsticks with his claws. It was like watching The Thing in the Fantastic Four movie trying to pick up is use-to-be-wife's wedding ring. Pathetic and also sad. Hinata laughed aloud and raised the combined bowl of stuff in a manner of toast. Shukaku looked at the compromise and did the same. They then began to sip their breakfast out of their bowls.

**Sorry, I just have this issue with not writing long chapters '-". In the next chapter comes a song! For those of you who have not seen the US movie called 'The Fantastic Four based on a marvel comic of some sort, just try to imagine picking up a penny/frank/yen/something else with really short fingernails. Thanks for reading!**


	14. The Sun and the Dark

_-Shukaku's Room-_

A pool-sized bathtub sat in the false white wood ground of Shukaku's bathroom which was just as big as his main bedroom itself. Many weeks had passed by since the fateful events that had led up to the trusting, sweet, and fluffy relationship between Hyuuga Hinata and the ichibi Shukaku. The yellow demon sat within the tub's depths, scrubbing himself clean without rubbing off his fur. On a sill, next to a candy bar-sized soap bar was Kankurou who was previously lighting the scattered sunflower scented candles lining around the room and was now pointing out places the bijuu had yet to wash. Excitement seethed around Kankurou almost as if it were an aura.

"Tonight's the big night!" the overjoyed candlestick exclaimed for the third time.

"I'm not sure if I can do this." the raccoon-dog glumly said, more to himself than to his candlestick servant. Kankurou waved that away.

"Don't be so negative!" scoffed the twenty-two year old object, "You must replace your timidness and think: Bold...and Daring!" he said this like an obnoxious, always lucky, life counselor. Even so, the ichibi' spirits rose. Shukaku got out of the tub and wrapped a large, fluffy green towel around his wet furred waist. On the outside, it may seem that he was a bit plump, but that was just the undercoat of fur that kept his body warm or cool, depending on what temperature he required at the time.

"Bold. Daring." he muttered and repeated consistently under his breath. His servants had tried making him accustomed to the human ways of drying. Unfortunately for them, with the amount of hair he had it, which was more than they ever had even before they were cursed/enchanted, shaking himself like a dog was a lot more easier and less time consuming. He did so: extinguishing many candles within a five yard vicinity.

"There will be music, romantic candlelight, _of course_ provided by myself, and when the time is right, you shall confess your undying love because love looks not with eyes, but the mind. And you shall say to her under the diamonds of the chandelier, 'My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give thee, the more I have, for both are infinite. And then...after she accepts your love and her love yours, you say to her with your eyes locked with her and her hands in yours, 'So long as I can breathe or I can see, so long lives your love which life gived to me."

Shukaku looked at the romantist strangely. "No." he dourly stated.

"You care for the girl, right?" asked Kankurou, already knowing the answer to that. He began to heat a rag and dried out bits of Shukaku's fur. A coat rack began fixing up its master's hair.

"More than anything."

"Well then at least say something sweet. The word 'destiny' draws in girls like a magnet!" The coat rack tapped Shukaku on the shoulder to turn around to look at the wall mirror. In his reflection he saw himself with an Elvis Presley hairdo. He shook his head. The coat rack removed the hair gel with some sort of other liquid as it dried out the hair and gave him long bangs that swayed a bit to his left and fell just above his fearsome yellow eyes. He nodded just as Baki knocked on the door and came in.

"Ahem, Hinata-sama awaits." he told the three, he left the room. Shukaku thanked the coat rack and left the bathroom to get dressed. He put on a white collared shirt and a black dress jacket over it. He tucked in a matching white hanker chief between his chest and the middle of his white shirt and slid on a pair of black dress pants with a hole in the back to put his fluffy yellow tail through. He rushed down the hallway that lead to his room and down the stairs and then left to the grand staircase leading to the main hallway. Kankurou slid down the banister just in time to see Hinata emerging from the right stairwell.

And there she was, Hinata. She saw Shukaku dressed to his best across from her on the opposite floor and smiled at him while giving a light blush, earning a smile from him in return. Dressed in a golden-honey coloured dress with fluffy, but not abundantly fluffy, sleeves that slipped past her pale shoulders. At the top of the golden ruffled bodice was a yellow bow, the same colour as the rest of the dress and meshed with her hair was a golden halo-like piece. The sparkly bodice ended in a diamond shape and from below it blossomed a poofy dress of two parts. On the top was a a very light shade of yellow, almost see through, and dashed with glitter. Underneath was a more solid gold colour. On her small feet were a pair of dazzling golden low-rise high-heels. She began to descended the staircase with grace.

Shukaku was prodded in the back by a coat hanger, he walked down the stair and met with her. He extended his left elbow to her: she wrapped her right hand around his forearm.

"Tale as old as time..." Temari sang, her purple eyes looking blissfully at the two, "true as it can be! Barely even friends, then somebody bends... unexpectedly."

The pair stopped by at the table, Hinata sitting closer to the grand staircase and Shukaku nearer to the entrance doors. Hinata ate her rice and drank some tea with her great lady-like manners: Shukaku was trying the best he could with the chopsticks again.

"Just a little change, small... to say the least. Both, a little scared. Neither one prepared— beauty and the beast."

Hinata got up from her chair and power-walked to the ichibi's side of the table and pulled him up with her, dragging him up the stairs and into the ballroom, it's great tall and wide double doors held open for the two by two suits of samurai armor shined to the boot. They glided into the room and moved into a beautiful dance sequence. A suit of armor scooped up Temari and Matsuri and carried them to the ballroom before resuming its post. In the large and circular ballroom Hinata put Shukaku's right hand just below her shoulder blade and rested her right hand in his raised left. He gulped as sweat appeared on his furry head. They began to dance in a circular motion, gracefully dancing their way counter clockwise the way it should be.

"Ever just the same! Ever a surprise!" sang Temari, Kankurou and Baki to her side, smiling to themselves. "Ever as before, ever just as sure. As the sun will rise!"

The brilliant chandelier hung above them, it's diamonds casting little lights about the room almost like a disco ball. Above that was a beautifully painted picture of bright clouds and sakura blossoms lightly sprinkling it as if they were falling to earth from the heavens. Blue birds soared across the marvelous painting as well with winged babies hiding amongst the clouds.

"Tale as old as time, tune as old as song." the small purple-eyed teapot chorused. "Bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, ...learning you were wrong." Hinata rested her pale face on Shukaku's warm chest. He looked to Kankurou and Baki in panic. Kankurou winked at him and Baki gave him a thumbs up with his mitten-like hands.

"Certain as the sun...," Temari sang, looking at the Hyuuga's beauty. "Rising in the east." "Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme. Beauty and the beast."

The human girl and bijuu could be seen at the furthest end of the vast room, the door to the outside balcony. Kankurou lowered his hands in rhythm with the music, the orchestra went down to a _pianissimo pianissimo _(or just _pp_ in music) volume, the candles on the chandelier and elsewhere in the room dimmed.

"Tale, as old as time. Song...as old as rhyme. Beauty and...the beast." They walked arm in arm together outside to the moonlit patio. Beside her on the marble white table Matsuri yawned. "Off to the cupboard now Matsuri, it's past your bedtime." Kankurou gave the orchestra a final order of _descendo _until the last of the measure. Matsuri slid down the leg of the table that had curved it to make it easier for the young tea cup. He slipped past the doors, then curiosity grasped her soul and she peeked once more inside for one last look.

Shukaku and Hinata had adjourned to the balcony underneath the starry night sky. The raccoon-dog sighed and asked his first love, "Hinata? Are you happy here with me?" Her white eyes gazed off to the distance. After hesitating to reply she said to him without looking at him once,

"Yes."

"But...what is it?" he inquired. She despairingly looked at him.

"My father... if I could see him again, if only for just a moment. I miss him so much. I have to return a library book as well!" she exclaimed to the tanuki. The demon raccoon-dog's heart near broke in half when his face suddenly lit up.

"I think I know a way!" he said to her he, gently took her hand and led her back to his room in the West Wing. He handed her an ovular, thick, yet flat crystal like mirror to look into. "This mirror will show you anything you wish to see." he told the human girl. She gave a steadied sigh and said aloud to none in particular,

"I'd like to see my father, please." The mirror flashed brilliantly for less than a second. She squinted her Byakugan eyes and looked into the mirror after the glare faded.

Hiashi was on all four in the snow, coughing hoarsely. A thick, crimson liquid splattered out of his mouth. The old man picked himself up and walked a few more shaky steps only to fall once more in the blizzarding cold. Looking on them was the shocked and horrified expression of Hinata and the concerned expression of Shukaku. "Father. _Damn it_! He's sick ...he may be dying and he's all alone since Neji-sama's too preoccupied with Tenten-chan and Hanabi's busy training under Hokage-sama."

After a moment of thought the yellow demonic mammal said to the young woman without turning his head towards her, "Then...then you must go to him."

"What did you say?!" she asked in great disbelief at his words.

"I release you from this castle. You are no longer my...prisoner." he softly said to her, trying to search the right words.

"You mean that...I'm free?" He nodded.

"Yes."

"Oh, arigatogazaimasu!" she thanked him, looking into the mirror she said to her illusionary father, "Hold on, father, I'm on my way!" She was about to leave but then pushed the crystal mirror back to the beast. he shook his furry head and gently pushed it back.

"Take it with you, so you'll always have a way to look back, and remember me." he said to her, the last part sounded almost like a question. She gave him a sad smile.

"Thank you, for understanding how much he needs me." She left the room but looked back in: Shukaku's head looked down in depression. She came back in and caressed his cheek with her hand. She rushed out of the West Wing and flipped out of her dress to reveal her normal blue and white dress.

**

* * *

That stuff that Kankurou was telling Shukaku to do were quotes from Shakespeare, I just randomly felt like putting it in there. I didn't really want to ruin such a great song like I had all the others so sorry and too bad! Please review!**


	15. NO is My Final Answer!

Konohamaru had disguised himself as a snowman by their gate complete with a carrot nose and naruto (the food) eyes. How he had been keeping his body warm is yet a mystery that no one really cares to solve. The Chuunin looked through the small cut out holes in the naruto fish-paste. He saw that the distant crunching of snow belonged to none other than Hinata herself and her loon of a father. _"Oh, they're back!"_ he thought. He held as still as a frozen idiot would and awaited for the Hyuuga house members to pass before breaking out of the snowman like a crazy guy who had been there for days on end with only some cold ramen little kids would splash and throw at him/the snowman.

Hiashi opened his Byakugan eyes to see his daughter standing above him with a makeup of concern on her face. "H-Hinata-chan?" She smiled at him, relieved to see that he was well enough to at least speak.

"Yes, father, it's alright. I'm home." she confirmed to him. He feebly raised his still-cold right hand to stroke her cheek.

"I thought I'd never see you again."

"I've missed you so much, father." He propped himself up on his elbows, suddenly aware of the reason she was taken from him in the first place.

"But that demon! It was the one once controlled by Sunagakure years ago wasn't it? How did you escape? I couldn't even use my Byakugan there!"

"I didn't escape father," she said, she frowned at the way he spoke of her darling Shukaku, "He let me go."

"That horrible monster?!" he said in disbelief. She put her hand over her father's and tried to comfort him.

"Please, he has changed. He is different now, somehow." As she said this a rustle came from her bag: the flap had opened and the Looking Glass slid out, Matsuri gliding on it like a skateboard or something.

"Hey, Hinata-sama, old man!" she greeted them.

"Oh, ...Matsuri right?" Hinata asked, her eyes were twitching a bit for she had forgotten that talking tea-cups even existed. Hiashi sat up, looking surprised and yet also amused as well.

"Well hello again...Matsuri you said?" he looked over to Hinata for name approval, she nodded and he continued, "I never thought that I would ever see you again." Matsuri disregarded him, not really caring for the old man, and turned to the first daughter of the main branch house: her eyes became all bubbly and teary looking.

"Hinata-channnnnn! Why did you go away?!?!" the chipped tea-cup whined, "Don't you like us anymore?!" Hinata's face became very chibi as she bent down to Matsuri's level.

"Matsuri-chan... of course I do! It's just that—." A knocking at the door interrupted her chiding. Hiashi was about to stand up before his daughter ushered him to rest down some more before she answered the door. She found before the wooden floors one of those slacker-nins who were always hanging around Uzumaki Naruto's private sake house. A silent moment passed them before he yawned and looked up, unsurprised to see an irritated Hyuuga before him. He looked onto the scroll before him.

"Yeeeeeah...I'm lookin' fur a... Hishi Huga?" he slowly said like a drunk. She took a while to answer, resisting the urge to take out his chakra points.

"You mean my father?"

"Don't worry...,"he said, looking up to see what gender his confronter was, "ma'am. We'll take good care of him." He stepped out of her view to reveal a caravan full of lunatics from around Konoha with Chakra-stopping restraints wrapped around them.

"My father is not crazy." she seethed, glaring kunai at the drunk. Konohamaru suddenly got sick of try to jump like a normal human to see what was happening so he jumped several yards into the air and landed a few feet away from the slacker-nin.

"Are you kidding!? He was an absolute madman! We all heard him, didn't we!?" he yelled to Hinata, then to the crowd.

"YEAH!" replied the crowd, eager to see a battle between to nitwits and the heir to the Hyuuga main house.

She activated her Byakugan, making Konohamaru and the other guy, to take a step back. "I won't let you." Her father feebly emerged from the room with a thick kimono draped over his shoulders.

"Hinata-chan?" he said in question. Konohamaru took a step forward.

"Ah, Lord Hiashi, Tell us again just how big was this demon?" he sneered.

"Well, he was...enormous! I'd say at least seven, no nine feet!" he exclaimed. Their audience laughed and snickered at the aging man.

"Well you don't get any more crazier _than that_!" chuckled the teenage boy with the scarf.

"It's absolutely true!" he told them.

"Whatever." He pointed out some more of Naruto's drunk lackeys to take Hiashi away. He tried to struggle out of the young mens' grips but failed due to his weariness, otherwise it would have been as fairly easy for him. Hinata rushed forth.

"No! You can't do this!" she cried. Naruto poofed beside her, his right arm wrapped around the back and over of her shoulders. He began to tsk her.

"Oh, Hinata-chan," he endearingly said to her, "It's a shame about your father." She glared at him, her Byakugan still activated.

"You know he's not crazy, _Naruto_." she hissed his name. He slipped his arm to around her small waist. Her eyes twitched and yet still shared the hating look towards him.

"I might be able to clear up this little misunderstanding, if..."

"If what?" she said, holding back a Jyuuken.

"If you marry me." he slyly said to her, leaning his face towards her.

"What!?" she angrily exclaimed. She gripped her left hand around Naruto's right that was at her waist.

"One little word, Hinata-chan. That's all it takes."

"NEVER!" she screamed, she tugged the arm along with its owner to the other side of her body and threw him several feet into the snow away from her using the force of her Jyuuken and pure strength. Seconds later he recovered and brushed the snow off his obnoxious orange and black suit which stood out like a target itself.

"Fine then, Hinata-chan. Have it your way. You'll come to me sooner or later." He said to her with his back turned, he walks away slowly, thinking that he was playing hard-to-get. While Hinata was being distracted by Naruto, the slacker-nin and Konohamaru had taken the exhausted Hiashi into Chakra-stopping restraints and had thrown him into the wagon.

"Hinata!?" he called for her. She dashed back into the house without even bothering to ake off her boots and brought back the Looking Glass.

"My father is not crazy! And I can prove it!" she yelled to the crowd in her still yet soft voice. To the large flat crystal she hastily whispered, "Show me Shukaku!" The thing flashed once more and an image of the ever-depressed raccoon-dog demon was displayed upon its surface. Her audience gasped in fear and awe at not only the ichibi but also the Looking Glass, wondering where they could buy one.

"Is it dangerous?" asked Shizune from the crowd. Hinata shook her black-haired head and tried to reassure her.

"Oh, no. He would never hurt anyone. Please, I know he looks vicious, but he really is kind and gentle. He is my friend." Naruto, who was still walking slowly, hearing the gasps of the crowd, dashed back to the front of the crowd within the house's walls.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you had feeling for this monster, tabeyo."

"Ha, if he's a monster, then you must be a Sannin! She jeered at the only Genin in the vicinity. He shook his head and dashed to her side in less than a second.

"You're as crazy as your, no...my soon to be old man, my dear Hinata-chan." he smugly said to her. He took the crystal from her hands in a blink of an eye.


	16. Clashing With the Mobs

"The demon will make off with your children in the night!" declared Naruto.

"No!" Hinata cried.

"We're not safe until his head's mounted on my wall! I say we KILL THE BEAST!" he bellowed. The crowd yelled after him 'Kill him!'.

"We're not safe until he's dead." said Teuchi, shuddering while at it..

"He'll come stalking us at night!" squealed Gai like a little girl. Sitting on a picnic table were Neji and Tenten and Rock Lee who was about to say hello. They all looked at him qith their eyes twitching and sweat-drops lolling off their heads.

"Set to sacrifice out pets to his bloody appetite!" whined Tsunade who was cradling Tonton in her arms.

"He'll wreck havoc on our village if we let him wander free!" yelled Asuma. Naruto came from a building with freshly painted explosion notes and katana and threw them into pile on the dirt ground.

"So it's time to take some action, men. It's time to follow me!" he persuaded the mob. The man took a lighted torch from a villager and threw it into a haystack: creating an instant bonfire. Konohamaru took out a bag of mushrooms and began to roast them, earning him one-thousand years of pain on the by Kakashi.

"Through the mist, through the woods. Through the darkness and the shadows. It's a nightmare, but it's one exciting ride.

Say a prayer, then we're there. At the drawbridge of the castle, and there's something truly terrible inside!" Seeing Konohamaru nearby, Naruto mimicked the monster and chased him around the fire.

"It's a beast! He's got fangs, razor sharp ones! Massive paws! Killer claws for the feast!" he sang. Naruto showed the image of Shukaku on the Looking Glass to the younger boy who staggered and fell to the ground backward. "Hear him roar, see him foam! But we're not coming home 'til he's dead! _Good and dead!_ KILL THE BEAST!" Hinata rushed to Naruto's side and touched his arm.

"No! I won't let you do this!" she yelled. He wrenched his arm from her and turned his back to her.

"If you're not with us then you're against us. Bring the old man!" he demanded his followers. Dragged by his elbows came Hiashi, struggling with all the old bones and withered skin he had.

"Get your hands off of me!" he hoarsly yelled at them. Naruto pushed the old man into the cellar, followed by Hinata. The blonde chuckled as he locked the door and put seals on it. He turned to his audience and smirked.

"We can't have them running off to warn the creature." he explained to them. Hinata fumed and ran at the door, only to be repelled and shocked by some electrical force.

"Let us out!" she angrily cried.

Naruto ignored their pleas. "We'll rid not only Konoha but all the villages of this demon! Who's with me!?" he smiled at their response. A chorus of "I am's" erupted from the mob.

"Grab your scrolls, forget remorse!" sang the crowd.

"Gather courage and know your place." Naruto said.

"We're counting on Naruto to lead the way!"

"Through a mist, through a wood! Where within a haunted castle, something's lurking there that you don't see every day." the large group sang. Naruto ran through the great and looming forest of the night with many upon many squads of shinobi following behind. Some were preparing a jutsu and others were sharpening their weapons.

"It's a beast! One as tall as a mountain! We won't rest 'till he's good and deceased.

"Steady forth, tabeyo! Grab your kunai grab your bow! Summon up and here we go!" the large group sang

"We'll lay siege to his castle and bring back his head!" boistered Naruto. Cheers and whoops sounded behind him.

_The Cellar_

Hinata sat next to her father while wallowing in misery. "I have to warn Shukaku. It's all my fault. Oh, father, what should we do?" she asked him. The old man sighed and draped his arm around her shoulders.

"Now, now. We'll think of something." he comforted her. She hugged him tightly. Matsuri was trying to squeeze her wide frame through the barred window when she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. Neji, Tenten, and Lee walked over to the cellar door as soon as they were sure that Naruto's gang had left the village gates.

"We don't like, what we don't understand. It frankly scares us. And this monster is mysterious at least." sang the mob as they flew through the dark forest.

"Bring your kunai, try to strive. Get your scrolls, they just might save your lives. We'll save our village and our wives. WE'LL KILL THE BEAST!"

_Shukaku's Castle_

Baki paced to and fro on the tiled floor of the grand hallway. He stopped before Kankurou who was laying on the ground in devestation. "I knew it. I knew it was foolish to get our hopes up." the clock said.

"Maybe it was better if she had never come at all." sighed Kankurou. His wax was making a puddle on the ground, practically gluing himself to the ground. The footstool came stumbling down the grand staircase from the right, barking like mad, and ran to the tall window by the entrance doors.

"Could it be?!" gasped Kankurou as he struggled to get out of his waxy restraints.

"Is it she?!" asked Temari who had hopped onto the banister on the top floor by the West Wing. Kankurou hobbled his way to the window and then onto the sill. His black eyes contracted.

"No, dammit! It's intruders!" he yelped as he saw a giant mob of ninja being led by a man in the most manly of colours: orange. The candlestick jumped off the window sill.

"Encroachers!" said the flabbergasted Baki. Temari saw the man in orange holding what was once their master's treasure.

"And they have the Looking Glass!" she cried. Temari hopped onto the teacart and wheeled away into the West Wing.

Baki;s black eyes became stern and unafraid. He turned around and walked toward the staircase in a slow and dramatic fashion with drums pattering in the distance and low brass instruments droning. "If it's a fight they want, then it's a fight they'll get. We'll be ready for them. Who's with me?!" he exclaimed at the last sentence after talking in a cool and collected attitude. He had turned around only to see the objects nearby the doors had flown and were running toward the staircase way ahead of them. The great doors thundered beyond and set the first floor trembling as the ninja on the other side set to punching and kicking the doors once they found that none of their ninjutsu, scrolls, nor notes worked. "Ahh!" he squeaked and ran away. The doors burst open and fleets of ninja came streaming in. Naruto walked obnoxiously in with his fists resting on his hips. He smirked and flicked his nose with his thumb.

"Take whatever you like, but remember, the demon is mine!" he said. He punched the air. His comrades yelled in triumph. The objects marched down both sides of the staircase, ready to do battle with the humans.

"Hearts ablaze, banners high! We go marching into battle unfaraid, although the danger just increased!" they sang.

"Raise the flag, sing the song! Here we come, we're fifty strong! And fifty ninja can't be wrong! LET'S KILL THE BEAST!

_Shukaku's Den_

Temari stood a few feet from the door and confronted Shukaku who was sulking in the moonlight of the midnight sky on the balcony. "Pardon me, master." she said to him. Her purple eyes were frantic.

"Leave me alone." he grumbled with a certain sadness in his voice.

"_But the castle is under attack_!" yelled the woman. She turned around and trembled as she heard the chanting outside.

"Kill the beast! KILL THE BEAST!" roared the mob. The coatracks struggled to uphold the doors to the west wing but their skinny and fragile, cheap gold, spines wouldn't allow it. Strips of wood splitnered away from the doors. Kankurou ran through the West Wing hallways with Anko at his side.

"This isn't working!" yelled Kankurou.

"Oh, Kankurou-kun! We must do something!" Anko said to him. He skidded to a stop as a the area around him lit up.

"Wait! I have an idea!" he exclaimed.

"Kill the beast! KILL THE BEAST!"

_Shukaku's Den Again_

"What should we do, master?" asked Temari through gritted teeth to supress herself from yelling at him. Shukaku's yellow eyes were dim and only half open as if in a daze. The full moon casts its lonely golden reflection in his eyes.

"It doesn't matter anymore. Just let them come." he mumbled in a strange voice.

"Kill the beast! KILL THE BEAST!" The mob had succeeded in breaking down the dorr and what greeted their arrival surprised them. A grand assortment of exspensive furniture, candlesticks, featherdusters, clocks, and tea accesories lay about in the hall ahead of them. Konohamaru too was awed by the room and unknown to him, picked up Kankurou who was holding as still as death. Kankurou smiled and yelled,

"NOW!"

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**Mwahahahaha! I've finally updated! I coul've updated this on Thanksgiving but I was high off cookies and thought I updated it already so I deleted it and so I had te rewrite it! I'm really sorry I took such a long time and I'm starting to check all the other chapters for spelling errors and changing Sai to Matsuri thanks to LightBender, Skylove 14, kitsune-chan119, and Lacrymosa17 (in a good way). Thanks every body! The end is near (to this story)!**


	17. And They Lived Happily Ever After

The castle objects sprang to life from around the smaller hallway of the West Wing. The battle was on as the objects attacked the surprised but prepared ninja.

_The Cellar_

Neji, Tenten, and Lee backed far from the cellar entrance and proceeded to watch the show. Hinata squished herself into the corner of the room furthest from her father as he did several hand signals. He finished with his left hand in front of him as if to do a Jyuuken.

"Hanabi no Makai no Jutsu!" the old man yelled. Hinata shrieked and covered her face with her arms. A circle of chakra appeared vertically in the air around him and from within it burst countless fireworks aimed at the cellar door. After the first five or so broke down the door, the rest of the fireworks went sailing out the door and into the starry night that you could never find in this world. The sky burst with colour and sparks. Neji and Tenten stood side by side of one another: Tenten leaning on Neji's muscular chest with his arms wrapped around her. Rock Lee's eyes teared like waterfalls, his black eyes reflecting the bursts of light in the night sky.

Hinata and Hiashi ran from the cellar to see Matsuri laying upside down on her rim. Hinata picked up the small tea cup and dusted her off. "Sorry about that!" she said to Matsuri.

"No problem!" she cheerfully said. Hinata put the cup into her blue pocket and ran to the castle after bidding goodbye to her father and friends.

_Shukaku's Castle_

Candlesticks were alighting fire to the attire of the ninja, the clocks were jumping on their toes, the feather-dusters were making them cough, and the furniture was killing them, literally. Naruto broke away from the mob somehow and made out to search for Shukaku in the rest of the West Wing. As Hinata, Matsuri, and Hiashi who decided to tag along drew closer to the castle the few broken squads of ninja that were left were chased from the castle grounds by the castle objects. "And stay out!" yelled Kankurou. Anko leaped and hugged him with her feathery arms. The couch smiled and whooped a cheer which was followed by the rest of the pieces. Kankurou punched the air in triumph and cheered. A gooey drop of white wax plopped itself onto Baki's smooth, polished, head. Irritated, the man shook it off but then soon joined the groups of celebrating objects.

_Shukaku's Den_

Shukaku lay on the ground a few feet from his precious blue rose suspended within the glass bell jar. He watched another petal lazily fall from it to the stand, it's blue glow practically illuminating the room if not for the mournful moon peeking behind the black clouds. He sighed. "_Only one more petal..." _he thought. The days of his life with Hinata would live with him until death for those days were of the happiest of his life. A man with short, spiky hair punched down the doors with the sound of thunder roaring outside. Light flickered through the room as lightning cracked outside. The man's face lit up within that time to reveal Uzumaki Naruto grinning evilly with a kunai in his hand. H e stalked forward and raised the weapon in the air above Shukaku.

The raccoon-dog looked sadly up at the Chuunin, sighed, and looked down to the ground once more, ready for his journey to the other side. Naruto brought down the kunai and pierced it deep into the ichibi's shoulder. Shukaku roared in pain and stood.

"You've met your match, demon! I've come to take you down, tabeyo!" Naruto boistered. The human rushed at Shukaku with his kunai: the tanuki dodged the slash by moving backward, only to trip over the curtain lying tarnished on the ground. He tripped backwards through the glass sliding door to the balcony and rolled to his feet. Naruto too tripped over the curtain even after clearly seeing Shukaku fall over it. The rain danced on their skins as Shukaku clutched his wounded shoulder and fell to the corner of the balcony where it met the roof. Naruto laughed as he saw that the demon was cornered. "Ha ha ha!" Shukaku simply sat there in the puddle of rain with despair written all over him. "Get up! C'mon, get up! What's the matter, beast? Too _kind _and_ gentle_ to fight back?!" Uzumaki mocked the demon.

The immature man broke off a piece of the roof and prepared to crush the creature's skull with it.

A familiar voice. The demon strained his neck to the source of the voice and saw Hinata on the bridge leading to the castle doors, yelling at Naruto to stop. "No! Shukaku-kun!" she yelled to him. The rain drenched her blue-black hair and stuck her bangs to her face.

"Hinata-san!" Shukaku gasped. He felt the sorrow in his heart lift by a fraction.

"Naruto, don't!" Hinata screamed. Naruto flashed with Anger and brought the roof piece down. Shukaku, with his regained strength, caught the mix of wood and metal in his paws. He stood up and roared in Naruto's face. They continued to fight onto the rooftop as the beast disarmed the human of the roof piece. Shukaku separated from Naruto and hid among the shadows of the stone gargoyles. Hinata's eyes were worry-stricken and she dashed into the castle walls.

"Come on out and fight!" snarled Naruto as he wildly looked around the rooftop with more kunai in his hands. "Did you love her, Shukaku?" he asked, now that he knew the demon's name thanks to Hinata's yelling. "Did you honestly think she'd want_ you_ when she had someone like _me_?!" Shukaku's yellow eyes glowed from the dark with anger, he jumped from the shadows and attacked. Naruto parried the attack. "It's over, beast. Hinata-chan is mine!" Shukaku glared bitterly at the smaller human, briskly whacked the kunai from Naruto's hands, and picked him up by the neck over the ledge of the slanted roof.

"As you were saying? he grumbled. Uzumaki's face became panic-stricken as beads of sweat rolled hastily down his tan skin.

"Put me down! Put me down! Please don't hurt me! I'll do anything I tell you! Anything!" he pleaded like a baby. The anger in Shukaku's eyes dwindled to compassion and roughly set down the ninja.

"Get out!" he demanded. He shoved Naruto to the ground.

"Shukaku-kun!" yelled Hinata from the balcony above. Shukaku spun on the spot around to see her: hitting Naruto with his huge mass of a wet tail.

"Hinata-san!" he began to climb up the green slates of the roof toward the girl he had fallen in love with. the girl who had taught him how to be a human at heart. He reached the balcony and hung over the side of it. "Hinata-chan, you came back?" he said to her. She put her hands on his wet yellow paws, now a wet sandy colour. They looked compassionately at each other but the moment was ruined when Naruto had leaped into the air with the remaining of his chakra and hoarsely yelled,

"Rasengan!" He pushed the blue orb of spinning chakra into the back of Shukaku. The ichibi roared in pain and as a reflex swished his thick tail, creating great impact on the man and sent him soaring through the crying sky. A tear fell from Naruto's blue eyes. "Hinata-chan..." He closed his eyes and fell over the roof ledge, never to be seen again. Shukaku's grip on the railing ledge was slipping and Hinata pulled him over. His body came over with a low thud with water droplets splashing everywhere. Kankurou, Baki, Matsuri, and Temari ran to the window but stayed out of sight, their eyes wide at the sight of not only their master and Hinata but the blue rose as well.

"You...came back." faintly said Shukaku, a smile displayed on his face.

"Of course I came back. I couldn't let them..." she said, her tears disappeared with the rain fall, " Oh, this is all my fault. If only I had gotten here sooner!" She bitterly said. Shukaku lightly squeezed her hand in reassurance.

"Maybe it's better this way."

"Don't talk like that!" she chided, she knew she was helpless in this situation since she couldn't use her medical jutsu. "You'll be all right. We're together now. You'll see." He smiled at her. His yellow eyes dimming. He averted his eyes to the weeping sky.

"At least I got to see you one...last...time..." he whispered. His eyes shut and his head and paws went limp. Hinata sat there in the rain for several seconds, still holding onto his paw, then quickly let go and covered her face with her hands.

_"This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This cannot be happening..."_ her mind raced over and over again. Her hands went to clutch the space where her heart was, her eyes streaming of tears.

"No, no! Please! Please! Don't leave me! I love you!" she yelled half to him and half to herself. From inside the room the group that was like a family watched in sorrow as the last petal drifted from the rose, leaving it bare and desolate. Temari began to silently cry, Baki put a comforting arm around her. The rain continued to fall on the couple outside but then a ray of light shot out from the sky to the beast like a shooting star. Another came, and then more after that.

Like millions of spotlights from the heavens were shining upon Shukaku. Hinata opened her eyes and saw what was happening, she backed away to the cold stone walls. A fog enshrouded him near completely and his body rose into the air, slowly spinning. The objects looking with anticipation out the door. Shukaku was enveloped in a cloud of light and became wrapped in his cloak. She could see that his body was shifting and forming. A hind paw emerged and became a pale foot. A fore paw came out and the claws became delicate fingers. A glowing wind of sparkling dust spiraled around his face, and swept and melted away to reveal a handsome young man. The grey-white fog dispersed and left the man lying there as if in deep sleep.

He had crimson-red hair, a beautifully shaped face devoid of any facial hair or blemishes, and unique black coloured in lines around his eyelids. Hinata reached out to touch him. She recoiled back when the figure began to move. He deftly stood to his bare feet with his faded black knit pant ends dragging on the ground and looked at his soft hands. He then looked to Hinata. He was a human, and a split second before his sky-blue eyes met hers she thought she saw the familiar yellow eyes of her once beloved. The girl gave him a mysterious look.

"Hinata-san, it's me!" he said to her with his lovely weak yet velvet voice. She continued to look at him skeptically but then saw the small bluish mark on his pale skin through his ripped shirt.

_"That's the scar from the poison I extracted from those wolves that attacked Shukaku-kun.. could he be...?" _her mind pondered. She took a step closer to him, her white eyes full of astonishment and happiness. "It is you!" she exclaimed. They embraced one another in their warm arms and kissed. A fireworks display is set off behind them thanks to her father down on the bridge.

"That's my girl..." Hiashi said, he smiled to himself and wiped away the tear forming in his eye. The dark gloom around the castle disappeared and sunlight broke through the clouds as if commanded by the gods. The gargoyles on the roof transformed into guardian statues with peace on their white stone faces, and the darkness of the castle walls and interior transformed into beautiful and magnificent things. The objects inside looked with great happiness as the castle practically shift-shaped around them, then at themselves as they began to transform back to their original selves one by one with light spiraling around them. Temari looked at her brother's purple marked face, let out a squeak of joy, and hugged him. He laughed joyously and returned the favour. Baki went outside to greet the prince as did Temari and Kankurou. The man named Gaara turned around and smiled without smiled without his teeth showing.

"Baki, Temari, Kankurou! Look at us!" he said to them with his quiet voice. Matsuri came riding in on the footstool.

"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!" yelled Matsuri, she jumped off the cushion and while in the air transformed into a young girl of twelve. The footstool transformed into a puppty looking dog. It cloud of smoke poofed from it and came out a man with red hair almost alike to Gaara's and dark brown eyes.

"Sasori-kun!" cried Temari she ran up to him, and blushed madly. "Is that who you've been all these years? I thought... I thought you had died!" she yelled at him. He put his arms around her and rocked in place.

"I'm sorry. I tried to tell you, I really did. I was trying out my dog puppet and when the spell took affect I was stuck in it. Apparently I can only in dog when I'm in there. I'm sorry Temari-chan." She hugged him nevertheless.

"It's a miracle!" Kankurou laughed. Gaara picked up Hinata and swung her around. The ruffles of her white underskirt swept them into the ballroom where they were all gathered to celebrate. Hinata, in her entrancing golden dress and Gaara in a dashing tuxedo suit, danced across the room almost as if they were gliding.

"Ah, love..." smiled Kankurou as his eyes glanced over his master and Hinata, then to Anko who was walking by in a enticing sparkly purple dress showing off her cleavage. He too had a suit on and was about to hook his arm around hers when Baki interrupted him.

"Well, Kankurou, old comrade. Shall we let bygones be bygones?" the tan, muscular man said to him. Kankurou scratched his head.

"Uh, sure...whatever that means. I told you she would break the spell." he said to him, feeling that Baki just said something rude to him.

"Yeah, right. I told you." the older man argued.

"No you didn't. I told you!" the man of twenty-two year honestly said. He was after all, telling the truth.

"No you didn't you moronic baboon!" spat Baki. Kankurou frowned, took off his right white glove and smacked him with it.

"En garde, you over grown pocket watch!" he sniffed. The two began fighting like a couple of children Kurenai came over to Baki and hit him on the head, he apologized to the former head of candlesticks and began waltzing with his lover. Temari, Sasori, Matsuri, and Hiashi stood by the refreshments table, watching Hinata and Gaara elegantly glide across the room in each other's arms. Hiashi began to cry again. Matsuri tugged on Temari hand that wasn't occupied by Sasori.

"Are they going to live happily ever after, Onee-chan?" she asked her unrelated sister. Temari smiled down at the younger girl and patted her short brown haired head.

"Of course, my dear, of course." she confidently said. Matsuri grinned then looked with horror on her face to Temari. "What?!"

"Do I still have to sleep in the cupboard!?" she exclaimed. Hiashi and Temari laughed as she hugged Matsuri. Everyone's eyes were on the perfect couple dancing in the center.

"Certain as the sun, rising in the east. Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme. Beauty and the beast."

"Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme. Beauty and... the beast."

♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪—_The End—♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥♪♥♫♥

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**Thank you to every one for sticking through this with me! -Poison Fairy-**

**Mysterygal02— LightBender— Lacrymosa17—Candygirl999— Kitsune1193— The Norwegian Dragon— Ayla Silverfang— Danimals21— nightwolf93— Rewy— symbiotic— Aliki— Sayuri Rose— Dragonstar-dreamer— animelover282— Aqua Aneko— Gaara1love— AuroraStarPhoenix— tamaosonokokoro-Riza— Blackrose-badluck— Skylove14— Amare draconis— NotaPunk— crazedchocolatefan— satsukiarisa— KyuubiPandoraChan. And to all you anonymous reviewers as well!!!**

**I'll be trying another anime themed musical so if you guys have any suggestions please do tell! Thanks again!**


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